


Ten Years Later

by bravelove



Category: Samgladiator - Fandom, Yandere high school
Genre: Attempted Murder, Bad Coping Methods, Beats Up Sam, Betrayal, Betting, Blackmail, Choking, Coercion, Dissociation, Emotional Abuse, Every character needs better coping methods, F/F, Fight Pits, Gaslighting, Ghosts, Guns, Kidnapping, Manipulation, Masks, Now with lesbians!, Organized Crime, Other, Pagan Themes, Physical Abuse, Possessive Language, Rabbit Behaviors, Self Loathing, Tarot, Texting, Threats, Threats Against a Minor, Threats of Violence, breakdowns, mentions of abuse, mentions of human trafficking, not tokyo soul complicit, self blaming, self hate, talks about suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2020-08-13 11:47:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 33,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20173738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravelove/pseuds/bravelove
Summary: It had been ten years since Grian had seen Sam





	1. A Hop to Hell

_“There’s a rabbit in my parlor”_

These were the first words that entered Grian’s head as he stared at a man he thought he’d gotten rid of ten years ago, a man he honestly thought would have gotten himself killed years ago, he looked the same and different, it was no doubt Sam, and he had a gun at his side. Biting his lip to choke down his desire to run, to scream, to have flashbacks, old instincts of apathy bubbled to the surface, and Grian could feel his face go from fearful and open, to empty and closed off once more.

The rabbit seemed satisfied if by how his ears twitched meant anything like it used to, and Grian’s eyes swept over him, he definitely had more scars these days, but none destroyed his roguish charm he had in his youth, he looked better groomed then he did back then as well, one of his ears had a tear in it, but if it bothered him, Sam didn’t show it. He was wearing casual wear, with some sort of white rabbit pin on his black jacket, nothing like the uniform he used to wear, back then.

“Grian it’s been ag-” The rabbit started but Grian had no time for this shit and he cut him off

“What do you want Sam”

Sam didn’t like that he could tell, from how his posture stiffened and his lip tugged back a bit, Grian knew if they were still teens that would have gotten another hole put into him, but from how Sam didn’t react anymore, not even moving his gun at all, it was clear he had gained some self control. That wasn’t good, he didn’t know how to read that.

“Ruuude, it’s been ten years since you ABANDONED me and Taurtis to Tokyo ALONE, really you should be glad I put in the effort to find you again!”

“They sent me to a different Tokyo Sam, you know this, and I wasn’t spending thousands to get back to you and become your knife holder again Sam.” Grian spoke evenly, a challenging glint in his tone despite how his heart thumped in his chest, he remembered ten years ago when he realized he had been sent to Canada, whether on purpose or a lucky break, Grian didn’t question it, instead getting to work fixing his life, he blocked all contact with the two, and even got a therapist, he hadn’t even thought back to his seventeen’s in years now, but now it all was fresh in his mind, the guns, the knives, the threats, the abuse, he took a deep breath, just how his therapist taught him, he knew they weren’t his fault anymore, but that didn’t stop the smell of gunpowder not there from suffocating his nose.

“Excuses excuses! You were our best friend Grian, our rock! Taurtis was distraught you know? He was so sad, cried over you, he was so scared something happened to you, how cruel of you.” Sam said this like it was fact, eyes narrowing with a nose twitch as he laid on the guilt, and Grian knew it was guilt, he wasn't seventeen anymore

“Not my problem, get out of my house.” Grian spat out, and he held his breath when Sam pointed the gun at him, eyes cold.

“Aw man and here I was expecting to have a happy reunion, well you always were pretty dumb so this doesn’t surprise me.” He said, voice tilting like this was a fucking game, like he wasn’t ready to murder Grian in cold blood, it digusted Grian, made his stomach twist.

“Now Sam, if you leave now. I won-” Grian began before this time, Sam interrupted, a curious twinkle in his eyes.

“Hey hey Grian? Ever heard of Rabbits Skin?”

The world froze for Grian, Rabbits Skin? The nefarious violent gang led by a mysterious cult of personality? That swooped in on the power vacuum left when they had killed all the Yakuza taking over the town and only growing larger by the day? Grian always had a hunch he knew who the leader was, he just, didn’t want to come to face with it, but now he had to, and Sam just looked so damn smug! At least it explained the pin....

A chuckle broke Grian out of his trance and he gritted his teeth and spat out “What do you want Sam.”

“You”

Grian shivered at how easy that answer was, he couldn’t go back, he couldn’t! But Sam didn’t stop there.

“You see I’ve been building my powerbase for ten years now Grian, and yet, you to this day at seventeen was one of the steadiest untrained aims I’ve ever seen, I need more people I can trust, more people with a steady aim and a cold mind, come back with me Grian, fix our trio, fix your mistakes, all will be forgiven, Taurtis will be thrilled, it’s his birthday soon you know? I know he still misses you, says it’s not right without you, this would be the perfect present! C’mon Grian don’t be a pussy.”

Grian ran his hands through his hair, a few strands caught on his wedding ring, and he was shaken with flashbacks again, how he had gone to school to become a teacher, how he had met back up with Ellen, how they started dating again, how Ellen had proposed, how, they were planning on adopting a kid. Grian started shaking, if he didn’t go Sam wouldn’t hesitate to uproot his life with as much blood as he needed, and with how Sam moved his gun to a picture of Ellen, he knew Sam was very very aware, and Grian, Grian couldn’t let Ellen get hurt.

He collapsed to his knees, biting back sobs as he choked out “Just shoot me Sam, shoot me and drag me away, I’m not going without a fight, and we both know it’s inevitable.”

Sam grinned “I’m so glad you finally are seeing reason for once Grian” and Grian screeched as a bullet entered his leg, carefully aimed, it was clear Sam had improved his aim, and Grian let himself collapse to the ground, and he let himself close his eyes as he faintly heard Sam barking orders at someone, and he let his pain and his despair pull him under a dark veil of unconsciousness, he just hoped Ellen would notice something was off and contact the police or just, something!

He hoped she wouldn’t go after him.


	2. Frozen Bleeding Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grian wakes up

A dull throb in his leg, that was the first thing Grian noticed when he woke up, he winced a bit, his pain tolerance had never gone back down to a normal amount, so the fact there was a dull throb was a bad sign. Then he noticed a few more things, it was quite cold, he was on a chair, and his hands were chained behind the chair, shit.

Grian opened his eyes, as memories flooded back, ah, right, his worst nightmares were real now, fun. He blinked, adjusting to the brightness of the room, noting how he could see his breath, looking down, he saw his leg was bandaged, huh, he was expecting that. He supposed it made sense though, Sam wanted him alive and useful after all. He then saw something blue, and his eyes snapped up to see Taurtis, he was whittling something, tongue poking out in concentration. He still wore those headphones he always did, but his usual suspenders and blue t-shirt were swapped out for a blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a black vest, he had stubble now, like he hadn’t shaved for a few days, he hadn’t noticed Grian was awake yet.

Not seeing a reason to speed up to what was probably going to be torture, Grian stayed quiet, just watching Taurtis, observing him for other changes. His fingers had a few scars, whittling accidents maybe? Grian squinted at Taurtis face, something seemed off...and then it clicked, make-up! He had make-up under his eyes, not noticeable to most people, but Grian had been to college, and had always been observant, he’d seen that make-up dozens of times, it was covering bags under his eyes most likely. His posture was straight, a far cry from his slouching back at school, he was wearing a gun holster and had a gun sheathed. It all just seemed wrong to Grian, Taurtis never seemed to want this kind of life, Grian wondered if not for Sam what Taurtis would have gone to college for. Maybe business? He always liked handling money even if he didn’t have the best memory for it, getting a product into stores was no easy feat, even if it was a rip off of an already existing product, he could have easily become a sales person who tries to be hip with the kids to sell video games or something.

Frowning at the thought, Grian shook his head, dwelling on what if’s of Sam never existed never ended well for his psyche, he didn’t want to spiral, he could hear his therapist giving him tips to keep his cool in his head, he closed his eyes and gathered all his thoughts on sam and danger as he breathed in, and then blew them away when he breathed out. That was better, his mind felt clearer, and he instead glanced around the room. Maybe a walk in freezer? The walls were all metal, and Grian very pointedly did not question the stains on them. The cooling device was above his head, and Grian was pretty sure that drain in the floor was not standard for a freezer. Taurtis was leaning on the wall by the door, There were no other ways out, Grian would have to either stay put, or try to get out that door. 

In silence Grian watched Taurtis whittle, refusing to think about Ellen or his students or anything like that, taking deep breaths as he centerered himself around the whittling, there was nothing but the whittling, his therapist never seemed overly happy with this coping method, but he never seemed to be able to lose the method. 

Grian wasn’t sure how long he watched Taurtis whittle, he always lost time when he centered himself around something, just existing as it did, normally Ellen would snap him out of it or one of his students would grab his attention again, but now there was no one, so he just existed, and he watched, and soon, at least he thinks it was soon, Taurtis had finished whittling, it seemed he had made a tortoise? Grian blinked at that, Ellen had always called Taurtis that. He wondered if Taurtis had adopted it then, or if seeing Grian had stirred some old memories. Whatever the reason it was quite impressive, not the kind of rushed misshapen work he’d have expected from the very distractible Taurtis. It was clear he had been doing that hobby for quite a bit of time.

Soon though, the almost pleasant trance had to end, as Taurtis looked up and accidentally locked eyes with Grian, causing him to jump and nick his thumb on the knife, and thus cause him to swear a bit. Yeah that seemed more like Taurtis.

“Grian! You’re awake! Do you like my tortoise! I like my tortoise! I’ve named him Henry!” Taurtis excitedly said, waving the tortoise in the air, “It’s soooo good to see you again dude it’s been ages! How you been?! It’s been pretty chill here, we got, we got a Robin, Robin Hood thing going on here!”

Grian couldn’t help a small frown at that, which Taurtis matched with a strained smile, Taurtis always had a terrible poker face, and Rabbits Skin was no Robin Hood organization, they were dangerous, taking whatever they wanted, no matter who had it, and targeted teenagers to recruit. There was no honor among thieves in this gang according to the news, and judging by how Taurtis stammered, Taurtis knew it, and had been lying to himself. 

This didn’t surprise Grian, Taurtis was always much more soft hearted then Sam, there was no way he could survive in a cutthroat organization like something Sam would run without deluding himself, poor guy, much too loyal, he was just lucky he probably had Sam’s protection, or he’d have just been another body carved up like a rabbit by this point. Poor bastard.

He then remembered he was asked a question and Taurtis seemed to be awkwardly waiting and he spoke, voice a bit rusty from lack of water, “It’s been pretty good Taurtis, aside from the whole bullet in the leg and kidnapping thing ehehe, besides that been doing pretty well, I’d very much like to go back to it now.”

Taurtis laughed, Grian could easily tell it was strained, “Don’t be silly Grian, you’re among friends now, we got you, we got you. Plus this isn’t a kidnapping this is just a friendly reunion! You’re among family now.”

“You aren’t my family Taurtis, I had a family already.”

Taurtis reeled like he had been struck and he sighed “Grian really, I don’t know how to explain this to you, just try and chin up okay? You’re going to be taken care of here, you can have whatever you want as long as you obey Sam, it’s family, you’re going to be okay, do you want some Tauritos? It’s a real brand now, new recipe of course, legalities, but it’s real now.”

“I want to go home Taurtis.” 

“Don’t, don’t be silly you are home, you were always so silly.”

“Why does Sam want me back.”

Grian could tell Taurtis was close to cracking, Taurtis was leaning away from him, tugging his collar, and just seemed so distressed under a layer of easy to read fake calm. His eyes darting as he looked for something to say.

“Just tell me why Sam wants me back.”

And then Taurtis shattered, “He, you, I missed you, and you were the one that got away, Sam, he doesn’t like loose ends you know? I’ll keep you safe Grian, it won’t be like before, I promise, he promised, and I know he missed you too, you were always our straight man-” Grian bit his lip to not make a gay joke, “-we were always supposed to be a trio, the three of us, forever against the world! Like action heroes! Please Grian we missed you so bad, please Grian just, let Sam have what he wants, it’s easier.”

Grian’s eyebrows raised at the last two words, mumbled so softly that Grian thought for a second he just imagined it, he took a deep breath and spoke with conviction as he calmly said. “Grow up Taurtis, you aren’t an action hero, you’re the bad guys, I will never let Sam just do what he wants with me anymore.”

Taurtis seemed heartbroken, his whole body sagged and he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I knew you were going to say that Grian, you always were, the smartest of the three of us, you’ll see eventually though, you’ll join us. There is no other option.”

“We aren’t kids anymore Taurtis, you know this has real stakes right? That this isn’t a game right? Get out of your own head Taurtis and look what Sam is doing! At all the dead people! Wake up and smell the rot!” Grian roared at Taurtis, suddenly so angry at this fucking  _ coward _ who would rather Sam kill hundreds then face his friend and realize it was bad, his entire body trembled with the desire to just, sock him in the face, maybe then he’d  _ realize _ !

“I’m not in my own head! Stop it! I’m trying to help you Grian! Let me help you Grian!” Taurtis begged, tears pricking his eyes, but Grian was not swayed.

“No! You’re just as bad as he is! Just as manipulative! You can’t sway me Taurtis! You’re one of the worst people I’ve ever known! I actually fixed my life, fixed  _ myself _ , and you refuse to leave a damn fantasy that you’re still the good guy.” Grian yelled as he struggled against the binds, too angry to care about the pain in his leg.

Taurtis went quiet, his face went cold, a suddenly good poker face slamming on, and he turned around without saying a word, and started to exit the freezer, but he paused in the door to quietly say “You don’t mean that, you’re just cranky, you’ll see soon, that there’s no point in growing up, no point to pretend you’re better the us because society convinced you we’re the bad guys, it’ll be okay soon Grian, I’ll protect you. We’ll be happy again.”

And before Grian could respond to that frankly batshit comment, the door was closed, and Taurtis was gone.

And Grian was alone.


	3. Spirits Whisper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellen discovers the worst has happened.

Ellen knew something was wrong before they even thought about going home. 

The ghosts whispered to them still, and though they had gotten better at tuning them out, they were quite loud today. Per usual when they weren’t focusing they couldn’t make out more then a few words, but the words they could make out were alarming, words like “threat” “danger” “run.”

Now they were no stranger to this, when they were fifteen, this was common place and helped them avoid danger from individuals like Yuki or other yakuza, but it had been quite a few years since the last time this happened, and Ellen was worried, very worried. They hoped it was nothing, just some ghosts overreacting or something.

The air was bad too, it just felt wrong, like even the world knew something had gone wrong, all and all, Ellen figured they should close up shop early today. It was a slow day at there fortune telling magic shop anyways, no real loss to close up. Standing up from there table, Ellen switched the “Open” sign to “Closed” but before she left, she decided to do a quick tarot reading, taking a deep breath Ellen flipped over the card at the top of the deck, a reversed three of pentacles.

Shit.

They weren’t supposed to be working alone anymore, they had Grian with them now, they didn’t need to be alone anymore, they had more friends these days as well, why were the cards telling them there was disharmony and they were alone!? Anxiety claws in there gut, they really didn’t like this, they had to go see Grian face to face, assure themselves there husband was safe. They took another deep breath and gathered there energy, they didn’t teleport much these days, as they can only teleport themselves, and they didn’t want to leave friends behind, but today it felt like an emergency.

They arrived at the house, Ellen stumbled for a bit, out of practice, head swimming a bit from using there magic to cover that much distance, but a blink and a shake of there head quickly righted that, and then they were struck with pure and utter fear.

The room was wrong, the house too quiet, Grian should be home and have noticed there teleport, they were very keen like that, the house was cold, and there was a cleaner they didn’t recognize in the air, and they walked swiftly towards the strongest area of the scent, the parlor, the front door was unlocked, why was it unlocked, Grian always made sure it was locked. They closed there eyes, calming the fire in there blood, they didn’t know anything yet, they needed to calm down.

Sitting down, they put there hands on the spot they smelled the cleaner coming from and meditated, clearing there mind, they felt the flower over there eye rustle, there was a spirit here, a spirit that was waiting for them, and they spoke “Spirit, I Majo Ellen humbly request an explanation to your presence.”

_ “Save them” _

Ellen sat up straight, that wasn’t a good sign, “Who?”

_ “Ellen it’s me, do you remember my voice? It’s me Salex” _

Salex, now that was a girl Ellen thought for sure would have passed on by now, why on earth was she still hanging around? “I remember, who needs saving”

_ “Grian...Taurtis...” _

Ellen frowned, it was clear being here so long had weakened Salex, that wasn’t good, they wouldn’t be able to get a clear answer, but clearly there was a problem. “Come with me to my altar, rest there, I shall put up some incense, hopefully it shall help your strength.” 

Standing up Ellen walked towards her altar, a beautiful table of pink ivory, very pricey but so so worth it. It had a lovely star patterned table cover with handmade lavender and silver candles resting on golden candle holders, with angalite and amethyst gems arranged in a pentagram, a deck of tarot cards to the left of it, and and an incense holder and lighter to the right of it. With a small dollhouse at the top of the table for spirits to rest in, Ellen focused on these details to calm there nerves, eyes running over the familiar patterns and set up, and grabbing there lighter and an incense from a drawer on the table, deciding on lemon to hopefully draw energy to Salex.

They lit the incense and put it on the holder, letting the lemon wash over them, empowering them to do what must be done, and the open door on the dollhouse slammed shut, showing that a spirit was currently taking residency, smart girl, they didn’t even need to tell them to do that. In a few minutes Salex should have enough strength to give some details.

Ellen clutched there hands together over the pentagram and prayed, nothing moved for what felt like years, before Ellen heard Salex speak again

_ “I had, to go find you, Sam...Sam has Grian. I was, watching over Taurtis, hoping he’ll eventually, snap to his senses and get away from Sam, and I saw him, I saw him!” _

Slowly moving her hands away from prayer, Ellen covered there face and resisted the urge to cry and scream, no, no, this couldn’t be happening, this couldn’t be happening. Instead they gently took there hands from there face and took off there wedding ring, a simple silver band with a hematite gem, they didn’t have traditional wedding rings as Ellen had wanted them to pick out stones they felt would be the most help to the other, Grian had chosen hematite for them, and they had picked bloodstone for Grian. 

Holding the ring in there hand they were very glad they had chosen hematite in this moment, hematite was a grounding stone that cleared confusion, they stared at the stone for a bit, thinking of what to do, before putting it back on and pulling out there phone, they had friends! People who had known them and Sam! People who could help, and they knew just the girl to text.

_ Chan do you have your phone< _

_ >Ellen? Of course I do, it’s been a bit since we last talked, has something come up? _

_ Unfortunately yes, the spirits have informed me great danger has befallen my household< _

_ >Oh no! Is everyone okay?? _

_ Grian has been kidnapped< _

_ >WHAT?! Blunt as always Ellen, what makes you think he was kidnapped?? _

_ Many things, spirits of the past, the door unlocked, suspicious smells, tarot readings of danger< _

_ >If it was anyone else I’d say you’re just being paranoid but knowing you... _

_ >I believe you how can I help _

_ He was kidnapped by the rabbit< _

_ >Well shit _

_ >Aughhh, I don’t want to go back to my highschool days >.< _

_ >God sam was always such a twat I have no idea why we put up with him back then _

_ Fear mostly< _

_ >It’s true but should you say it? _

_ >I’m glad I moved out of that town, it was bad for my intrusive thoughts _

_ >But I guess you’re gathering a group to go challenge Sam because the police are fuckin useless? _

_ Indeed< _

_ >I’ll pull in some connections then, I do owe you for removing that one ghost from my attic _

_ I had no intentions of calling that debt to force you to come, this will be dangerous Chan, please do not feel pressured< _

_ >Really it’s no problem, I know its dangerous, but I have faith in myself _

_ Thank you Chan, you are a good friend< _

_ >I’ll be there in an hour, anyone I should contact? _

_ I believe you are still in contact with Sookie yes?< _

_ >Yeah! Ever since I stopped her from jumping off the roof and convinced her to get help for her depression we’ve kept in contact _

_ I believe it is finally time for all of us to truly put that school behind us, ask her and Soul if they are willing to be of any assistance for me please? _

_ >Can't promise anything but I’ll try _

_ Thank you< _

Staring at there phone, they wondered who else they could contact, perhaps Dom? They had kept in contact with the poor boy after Dom went to them for mystic help for his sexuality, and helped them come to terms with the fact he was gay which was a reason he acted out, something told them not yet though, and so there gaze shifted, moving on and looking through there numbers, Ellen realized who could help, Pie! 

They were exes true, having tried out dating after Grian left in witness protection, and was actually the person who helped them come to terms with the fact they were aromantic. They were still close though, and after that silly knife fight, Pie had gone into learning to throw knives, having found the fight to have boosted her confidence and wanted to become a stronger person, she even made knives for a living now. Though she still wore that helmet, a comfort thing Ellen was pretty sure, she did take it off more though, which was good because not even they could understand there muffled words.

_ Pie I hate to bother you but it’s an emergency< _

_ >dw Im on break _

_ >wassup _

_ Grian has been kidnapped< _

_ >omfg u ok? _

_ Physically yes< _

_ > omy  _

_ >whats the deets _

_ If my spirit connections are correct, Sam is back< _

_ >fuck _

_ My thoughts exactly< _

_ >i gotcha back _

_ >rabbit stew time _

_ I knew I could count on you Pie, please hurry< _

_ >brb be there soon _

_ >u lucky I already hit my quota today _

_ Contact anyone you might think would want in< _

_ >gotcha gotcha _

Ellen smiled at the screen, though they wished Pie could type normally, it was always a relief to talk to them. Putting away her phone, they figured those two could gather more people they think should come. Relief flooded Ellen as they knew they weren’t alone in this, and as terrified as they were for Grian, they knew they would fix this, rabbit stew indeed.

Feeling confident, they pulled another card from there tarot deck, an upside down six of swords, they frowned a bit, well that didn’t tell them anything new, but it did confirm there theory, it’s time to finally do what is needed to leave the past in the past, Ellen had hoped they would not see more blood in there lifetime, but alas, they will do what they must for there husband.


	4. Friends and Tea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellen's friends arrive

Meditating, Ellen let there mind wander, clearing it, magic flowed through there body, and now she could feel its pulse, it grounded them, reminded them they had power, they were not the weak seer teenager anymore. Lemon filled there senses, invigorating them, and so there they waited for Chan and Pie, calm and deadly, ready to strike. When they heard a knock at the door, they did not open there eyes, instead casting there vision forward a few seconds, just to be safe. In a purple mist they saw Chan and Pie waiting worried, not anyone dangerous. 

Opening there eyes Ellen stood up with a small stretch, walking over to the door she called out, “Doors open dears, come in come in,” and was soon greeted to the sight of her two friends, Chan seemed to have brought some sweets, clever girl, and Pie had her bag no doubt a few of her custom knives in there. Ellen smiled, it felt good to not be alone right now.

“Okay Ellen spill, what is going on?” Chan asked, handing Ellen a bar of chocolate to nibble on.

Pie made a few muffled noises and Ellen gestured to the helmet, which Pie quickly took off,Ellen noted she must be quite upset then to take it off so easily, as they nibbled on the chocolate bar.

“Ellen you aren’t hurt right, god this sucks so badly I thought we were past this!”

“Alas my friends, those days return once again, the bunny strikes once more, but now we are stronger, our fear has nothing on our anger, he shall find we shall not roll over easily to his whims anymore.” Ellen calmly stated, rummaging through a drawer for a pen and paper, “We have a weapon not even they can see coming.”

“A weapon?” Chan asked, “You never were once for conflict Ellen, I’m surprised you’re getting so involved this time, I mean of course are it’s for Grian, but to this level it’s kinda eerie!”

“So normal Ellen huh?” Pie joked, and Ellen couldn’t help but snicker a bit at that.

Ellen tapped on the dollhouse, “Come out, come out, spirit so free, I brought you some paper, communicate with us so what you know we can see.”

The two girls went quiet as they stared at the dollhouse, clearly a bit unnerved at the prospect of a spirit, and Ellen bit back a snicker, ah normal people were so entertaining at times. The door to the dollhouse gently opened and Ellen put the paper and pencil on the altar, after a few seconds of no one breathing, the pencil moved.

_ “Hello, it’s nice to see you again Chan and Pie, it’s been quite a long time...” _

“Oh uh hello! Who is this?” Pie asked, shifting a bit awkwardly at the fact she was talking to a ghost.

_ “Salex” _

Both of there eyes widened as they stared at the paper, and Ellen grinned.

“Taurtis told me all about you Salex, I thought, shouldn’t you have passed on by now??” Chan exclaimed, moving closer to the altar.

_ “I'm glad Taurtis talked about me and no I can not, I refuse, not until he's safe, my love.”  _ the pencil shivered as it wrote, Ellen figured they should probably intervene before they distress Salex

“Okay everyone deep breath, I know this is a lot, but we shouldn’t overwhelm them, Salex please write down what you told me.”

Chan looked like she was about to say something else so Ellen shot her a small look and she quickly shut her mouth and watched as Salex wrote more.

_ “Grian was kidnapped by Sam, I was haunting Taurtis when I saw Sam drag him in bound, last I checked he was at one of there bases, I can lead you there.” _

“This feels too convenient,” Chan murmured, “It can’t really be that easy can it?”

“In that town? It’s either going to be even easier, or some bullshit will happen last minute” Pie snarked, “I’ve watched from the background those three back then enough to know the universe is just, not normal around those two.”

Ellen nodded rubbing her chin “I can not argue with that, I saw more magical activity in that one year then I ever saw anywhere else since, whatever it was, it did not follow Grian at least.”

“So what then? We just head over?” Pie asked, eyes flicking to the two of them “No other plans?”

Chan frowned “I’m getting in contact with some of my old friends from back then, lets give it a day to plan, rushing in will just get us killed.”

Everyone's eyes snapped back to the pencil with the soft sound of the scratching of the paper started up again,  _ “It would be unwise to rush, Sam is much more powerful these days, he runs an organization I think? I’m pretty sure I’ve heard them mention something called Rabbits Skin?” _

A loud groan erupted from the three of them, and Chan rubbed her face before sighing “That’s utterly unsurprising, I’m so glad the two of us moved over to Canada on your advice right before they formed up, nothing good about them in the news, heck some news outlets even think it might technically count as a cult, so in other words, it’s very Sam.”

“Hm, Sookie and Soul Owl moved out to a nearby city specifically to get away from the gang I believe, they may still have contacts in the town we might be able to get our hands on.” Chan commented, tapping her fingers on her leg as she talked, “Through that we might be able to see who's up for a school reunion, of finally beating up Sam like we really should have back then.”

Pie snapped her fingers seeming to realize something, “A school reunion that’s genius! It’s been ten years, that’s the perfect excuse to gather all our class in one place! Does anyone know Silly’s number we can bring it up with her!” 

Chan clapped her hands “Oh oh I know! Sookie mentioned to me that Hidden a few years after graduation actually started dating her brother Necra!”

“She had a brother?” Pie asked, eyes scrunched in confusion.

“Yeah he didn’t really hang around the high school though, I was really happy to learn Hidden was healing it must have escaped my mind to tell you!” 

“Makes sense to me!” Pie declared “So now what?”

“Now we spend seven hours googling the gang, getting in contact with our old friends, and scraping together the cash to even get over there it’s quite expensive.” Ellen said with a hum, “Really why couldn’t they have taken him somewhere closer this is just impolite.”

Chan chuckled at that, rubbing her face “Never change Ellen, never change.”

“I shall prepare us tea, feel free to use our computers, it is time to gaze into the abyss for knowledge.”

“And now you’re just being dramatic.”

“Ehehe”

Task now set in motion, the three went to work, Pie slipped back on her helmet and headed to the computer room, while Chan refocused on there phone, texting furiously, tongue sticking out a bit, flipping a special plastic pocket knife open and closed they had made to stim with. With a small sigh of exhaustion from all the stress of the day and the start of a headache, Ellen headed to the kitchen, staring at the wall of tea blends and spices, they rubbed there chin as they thought of what blend would do them the most good. Eyes scanning the cabinet Ellen nodded, ginger for confidence, bergamot for protection, with a dash of rose hips for luck! Quickly getting to work grabbing the teas, Ellen set to it, putting the kettle on to bring to boil herbs at the ready, They smiled at it, they always liked there trusty kettle, while many scoffed at them for not using electric, Ellen found stove top just felt more natural, blended better with magic, and so, they ignored those people.

As she waited Ellen pulled out her phone to make some calls, Grian had responsibilities, they’d have to cancel them then, but what excuse, an injury overseas perhaps? Though why would he be overseas, Ellen hummed as they thought, perhaps there was a funeral they had to get to? They would fill in Grian on the cover story of the tragic demise of an uncle that had moved to Japan, and how they had to hurry to catch a flight and asked Ellen to call in for them, they’d start with that and if people ask questions later, then Grian broke his leg over there. It’d have to do, and they started to dial Grian’s school, hopefully he had enough sick days for this. 

Ellen had a feeling there headache was going to be a lot worse very soon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't actually know anything about tea this probably tastes terrible dont @ me


	5. Blanket of Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grian is forced to make a horrible choice, there is a lot of emotional manipulation here, please do not read if such things upset you!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This, got a bit away from me, please take those new tags seriously, Sam does some really fucked up manipulative shit here and if you can't stomach that kind of stuff, there is zero shame in backing the fuck out, please keep yourself safe!

Shivering, Grian stared at the door, he couldn’t feel his fingers, Grian barely felt his body in general really, not from the cold no, but Grian’s mind was gone, old dissociation habits had come back full force, and Grian was gone at the moment, and not coming back any time soon.

He wasn’t sure how long he remained lost in his own head, shivering and open to any attack, not that he could stop them with his hands chained behind the chair, Grian wondered if he was in hell yet. This was so unlike the Sam he had spent years with, it was too slow, too nonbloody, it scared Grian that Sam might have reached new levels of self control. He could only count on a few things when dealing with Sam, and one of them was how he easy it was to distract Sam or get him riled up, but that was gone with the wind now, Grian could feel it.

Eventually the door opened again, and Grian was forced back to himself, blinking he looked at the door, it was, a random guard? He had been expecting Sam in all honesty, not some creepy looking guy in padded black clothing holding a gun, and a black somewhat terrifying bunny mask covering his face, though some brown hair peeked out. Grian blinked at them for a few seconds before realizing something horrifying, from there posture and size they looked what, fifteen? Sam really was recruiting teenagers then, Grian had students that kids age, and it made him sick to his stomach, god what drove a kid to join a gang like this, to so casually hold a gun??

He opened his mouth to plead with the kid to just, rethink there life choices, but then there was a gun pointed at him and he wisely closed his mouth, he stayed still as the guard, the child, unchained him from the chair and dragged him to his feet. He stumbled at first, he felt like pure ice, and it was hard to move his stiff legs, but he managed. Soon he was out of the cold and Grian couldn’t help but shiver more at the sudden blast of hear, god how long was he in there? He tried to look around the compound, but the gun jammed into his side and Grian snapped back to attention, ah then Sam wasn’t letting it be that easy huh?

Grian walked silently by the guard, too cold to even feel the pain in his leg anymore, he debated how easily he could disarm the child, but that gun, no he couldn’t risk it, he could get shot or worse accidentally shoot the kid, for now he’d have to play good prisoner. So he just walked eyes on the guard, catching glimpses of doors and random assorted guards in similar outfits, and soon he was brought to a room with a pure white door. As he entered, he noticed the guard had not followed and inside. The first thing he saw were rabbit ears, Sam, but Sam wasn’t facing him, instead leaning over a computer, watching something, he didn’t even twitch. Was it possible he had just not noticed him? Eyes sliding over the room, there was a simple bed and bed stand, and there was a gun on it, a loaded gun. His hand twitched, memories flooded him, and he moved automatically. This was his chance, he could, he could save a lot of lives if he just, it’d kill him probably but, it’d be worth it, behead the beast, save everyone else. Soon the gun was in his hands, just as light as he remembered. He thought it’d feel different after so long and so much therapy, but no it was just as plain and unemotional as always. He didn’t know if that was a good thing.

He raised the gun, pointed it at Sam’s head and fired with a load bang, but it sounded wrong, hollow, and Sam just started to laugh a bit, Grian fired more, desperate before he was forced to face the obvious. They were blanks, and he was just set up.

Sam turned around and stretched a bit, grinning wildly, Grian noticed he was wearing much fancier clothes this time, a blood red vest with silver rabbit buttons, a white satin button up dress shirt, rings on his fingers, and a simple slacks with a golden trim, and some sort of black necklace around his neck with some random fancy silver chain pattern and a bunny head charm on the front, and to top it off, pink leather gloves, a far cry from earlier’s casual wear. Numbly Grian heard him begin to talk.

“You really thought I’d leave a loaded gun just around? Dumbass, use your brain for once! So cold too, you didn’t even hesitate! Gosh doesn’t our old friendship mean anything to you Grian? I made you and this is how you thank me? So cold, so cruel, you always were pretty cruel Grian, remember when you threatened me to get to Yuki, you were such a bastard.”

Biting his tongue and looking away, Grian knew response would just make it worse, he’d twist it somehow, or use it to hurt him, Sam seemed disappointed, good you bastard. A now frowning Sam stared at him, as if trying to read him. Then he reached back over to his computer and pulled up a file and began to speak something that made his blood go cold.

“Tori, fifteen, black hair, dark blue eyes, comes from divorced family, student to Mr. Majo’s-man you really took the witch’s last name huh? Weirdo. Majo Grian does not roll off the tongue. Anyways, where was I...student to Mr. Majo’s Japanese class, honor-roll but very timid due to his abusive mother, signed up for the Japenese Exchange program there, heading to Japan for further studies in two months through a sponsorship, tends to keep to himself and known for dissociating due to untreated trauma thanks to the families lack of funds, his father’s sickness taking most of the funds, they say he’s a fighter if corner though, he’d do good in the pits I think, especially at the chance to earn extra money for his father’s bills, really I’d be doing him a favor I think, hey, what are you doing with that-OW!”

Grumbling as he rubbed his head where the gun was just thrown at, Sam glared “No need to be so testy Grian geeez, ow ow, that HURT!” 

“Good! What the fuck Sam! Don’t go after my fucking students! This is our beef! You do not drag them into it!” Grian screamed, seething in rage and the desire to just, beat Sam to death with his bare hands.

“Language.” Sam tutted to the seething anger of Grian. 

“No! You don’t get to change the subject! You will not go after my students!” 

“How can you stop me?” Sam questioned, a cruel twinkle in his eyes as head tilted in curiosity, “How can you stop me from luring this kid in with a promise of money, give him easy ways of making it to make it seem so easy, before sending someone to kill his father, leaving him with two options to either stay with us or go back to his abusive mother, it’s that easy to catch a teenager, Grian, why should I listen to a thing you say. I’m sure he’d be a great fit for the family.”

“I-I-” And like that, all of Grian’s anger left him, instead he just, felt so so cold, not the kind of cold from the freezer, but a chill that creeped through his blood, and left him unable to move, unable to speak, the things Sam were saying, he wished Sam had just stabbed him instead, that would have been more pleasant then  _ this _ !

“That’s what I thought, now I could absolutely leave this kid alone, but I need something from you.”

“I-no-I-” He couldn’t, but he couldn’t also throw away a student like that, he couldn’t he’d never be able to live with himself, god was there really no third option? No way out? Just him or Tori?

“Think about it Grian, are you really going to throw your students under the bus so you can pretend you’re doing something? Are you going to betray them like that??”

“I-I-” No, no he couldn’t he couldn’t he loved his students so much, he can’t betray, them he can’t! He felt himself shaking with a new intensity, eyes wide in pure horror.

“God you’re a monster Grian! These students depend on you and you’d sacrifice them so easily? You really are cold, I like it, love the ruthlessness! You’re more like me then I remembered.”

“Fine, fine what do you want Sam, what do you want?! Just...don’t hurt them...” Grian could feel the tears start to streak down his face as his knees buckled as he gave in, barely holding himself together with a small sob. He flinched as Sam cupped his face with those gloves, they were weirdly soft, but to Grian it just felt like the most painful acid. 

“Aww poor thing, so scared over these random people, so scared over those nothings, I’m not asking you to do more then you can Grian, promise, you just have to agree to not try and escape okay? That’s all, Taurtis would get upset if you tried, and we don’t want you getting hurt, you already are so injured from being so silly, you were always so so silly Grian, always fighting, always trying, never willing to just let someone else take over, to let someone else think for you, never willing to just stop thinking, you can stop now, I have you again Grian, you’re mine, and I know better then to let what’s mine escape me. For now just, don’t escape Grian okay? You can learn everything else you’ll need later, for now, just stay here. You can do that much for these children’s safety couldn’t you? Your doomed attempts aren’t anything compared to a real breathing life is it? Don’t be selfish,” Sam cooed, thumb of his glove rubbing away Grian’s tears before pressing a kiss to Grian’s temple making him shiver in fear.

“I-I promise, I won’t try and escape, I won’t fight for you, I won’t be yours, and I’ll never give up on leaving, but I won’t try and run, you won’t win Sam, you won’t win. I’ll win, I have to” Grian croaked out, stressed beyond belief, memories of the student and how much he loved teaching the timid student and how he’d sometimes leave money where he’d find it to make sure he ate flooded his brain, he couldn’t let him be hurt, Grian’s escape attempts weren’t worth Sam breaking him. They couldn’t even compare, the fact Grian had even hesitated sickened him to a core, god he really was a monster.

“There, that wasn’t so hard was it Grian? Really you’re just so dramatic, making me out like a real bad guy here when I just want to help you, you always make things such a fight for no reason, you’re way too stubborn! Really like c’mon you think I wouldn’t help a pal out? I’m not stupid Grian! Never assume I’m stupid again!”

“I-I didn’t!”

Good, it’s very rude to do that you know? You’re very rude like that so it wouldn’t surprise me, I’m glad you weren’t though Grian, you’re such a good friend.... You were just misguided before, you’ll be put back on the right track soon. So don’t worry about that. Oh and one more thing Grian before I forget? Brush my hair for me will you? I’ll move you out of the ice box for now if you do.” Sam asked, a dark glint in his eye, though whatever hair brushing would require that would create such a glint, very much confused Grian, so he just nodded Which made Sam smile quite widely as he handed Grian a comb and sit down on the bed and gestured at Grian to come closer.

As Sam gestured to him, Grian awkwardly moved closer, he was certain he was one hundred percent missing something as Sam shoved his head at Grian, with a murmur “Oh and try and pull anything and I’ll just straight up kill the kid, or maybe the mom would pay me to kidnap the kid for him, ah choices choices..” and Grian shivered, remembering what’s at stake, he shakingly started to comb Sam’s hair, closing his eyes to pretend it’s some stray dog or something that Ellen found, and he felt like he had certainly lost some sort of fight here, especially with how smug Sam seemed at this, but then again, that’s how he always felt with Sam before, so no real change there at least.

He had never felt so scared and yet confused in his life, though at least he didn’t get stabbed, which was a positive, even if it kinda freaked him out.

What the hell even were the pits?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone Please Help Grian and also if you think I forgot a tag let me know I'll fix it!


	6. Digital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grian would like things to be normal please!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now for something a lot lighter!

By the time Sam excused Grian, Grian’s hand was cramping from just the sheer amount of combing Sam made him do, he gently rubbed it with his other hand as he was escorted by another rabbit masked kid, though this one had a white rabbit mask on, Grian wondered if there was a ranking system there. Soon he was delivered at a plain brown door, he really hoped the fact it was nearly exactly his hair color was a coincidence, it was covered in locks from the outside, and Grian knew there’d be no easy way out of it just by looking at it. Not that he could escape, bitter feelings knotting up his stomach, he made a promise and lives were at stake, god it felt so shitty to be helpless, hopefully Ellen had called the police by now. He waited a bit awkwardly as the guard unlocked everything and Grian couldn’t help but be a bit bemused at the sheer amount, Sam really didn’t want him going anywhere huh, he didn’t even need the promise really, and who put a padlock on a regular door?? 

Soon the door was open, and Grian silently entered it, he bit his cheek as he thought of the guard, still so young, and he couldn’t stop himself from gently speaking. “You know it’s not too late to turn away from this path right? I could-” The door slammed behind him and was soon followed by locking noises, and Grian sighed, he tried at least.

Looking around the room Grian noticed it was quite sparse, there was a single bed with red sheets, a bedside table with nothing on top of it, a small closet, a mirror, and a small bookshelf with a few books on it. With a loud groan Grian let himself collapse onto the bed, god he was exhausted, he hadn’t even done anything beyond comb Sam’s hair for only god knows how long, but he was so exhausted, dealing with Sam was the most exhausting thing on the planet. Grabbing a pillow, Grian screamed into it, he screamed and screamed until he couldn’t scream anymore, he felt a bit better after that,

It then occurred to Grian he hadn’t had anything to drink in hours, and who knows how long he was out for! He frowned, how the hell was he supposed to get a drink of water?? He thought for a second before figuring there must be a guard outside he could just ask. Standing up with a bit of hesitation he walked up to the door to try and talk to the guard, but when he opened his mouth nothing came out but a small croak. Holding his face in his hands Grian couldn’t believe his stupidity, he just shot his voice screaming didn’t he?

Rubbing his temple at his own stupidity, Grian figured he’d have to wait until whatever meal was next given to him, just his luck. He looked over to the bedside table, it had a drawer, maybe he’d get lucky and there was a water bottle in there? Doubtful but really, did he have anything to lose? So he opened to it and he couldn’t believe his eyes, rubbing them, was that an IPhone?? He scrambled to pick it up, he could text someone, he could get help!

Once it was in his hands though it felt off, and Grian was instantly on guard. There wasn’t a home button, or any button that wasn’t a power button, not even volume, it felt a bit lighter then a normal Iphone as well, turning it around to look at the logo revealed definitely not an apple, but a circle with demon horns and a demon tail? What on earth was this? Seeing no real other option and theorizing it was at worst some asshole screamer he turned it on, and was greeted by a loading animation of the same demon circle logo hovering and spinning, before it booted onto a dark blue screen with the words “Welcome delighted prisoner Grian! Written in a pink cursive font.

Grian felt very fucking baffled to say the least, what the fuck, how the fuck did weirdness just follow Sam like a plague?! After staring at the phone? Device? For what felt for five minutes, he finally came to the conclusion it wasn’t going to do anything else without prompt and with a bit of hesitance tapped the screen, still not ruling out the idea that it was a screamer. However instead of some crappy YouTube level screamer popping up on the screen, it was instead taken to what looked like a blue room, with windows and a light blue carpet. The door opened and a little sprite of a person walked in and despite the few minor changes, like the addition of horns and a devil tail, Grian immediately recognized this person, how could he not? He watched her die! Why the fuck was Yuki on his screen!? Just what twisted thing had Sam given him!?

Staring once again, this time in shock, Grian took in every detail on the screen, her long pink hair, she had her usual giant white bow and striped shirt and skirt, the white small horns and demon tail was new but Grian couldn’t deny it suited her, she tapped her foot in an idle animation, it was no doubt a digital manifestation of Sam’s dead ex, he shivered, that’s really creepy. He was tempted to just shut off the thing, but he could feel a bit of morbid curiosity form, just what did Sam think about Yuki after all that went down anyways? Yuki got away from him in a way he could never undo, was he mad about it? Did it haunt him?? Perhaps this could be the glimpse into Sam’s psyche he needed to survive! Though his head ached a bit at the thought of more mind games, he pressed on and clicked on Yuki.

A text box popped back up with that same pink font appearing back, squinting Grian read it, tapping along to keep the dialogue going, “Hello! My name is Yiku! I shall be your guide today! It seems you are a high profile prisoner Grian and have been given your own personal guide through your adjustment to your new home! We cannot afford you being hurt in ways not ordered and have found my services to be a good way to encourage good behavior! This room is my room! I shall be staying here and over time you could earn new gifts and items for me! If you need my help or want to talk, click on me here! If you click on the button in the left corner you can access the menu! From the menu you can click on Settings, to adjust anything not to your liking, Inventory, to see items you have that can interact with me, Ordering, for when you wish to spend credits, Credits, where you can look at your credits and see if you’ve been granted more credits and why, and there is also Achievements, for when you do something achievement worthy! Please click on Ordering!”

This was a very confusing day, Grian had decided, just what was this?? A Tamagachi of Sam’s dead ex girlfriend? Grian wondered if he had actually fallen asleep when he had collapsed on the bed earlier, this could not be fucking real. No way no how, just what was this?! What was the point of this?? What?? Just what the hell was wrong with that bunny?? What else did this strange program hold?

Now a bit curious to where this mole hole was taking him, he opened the menu and clicked on Ordering, his eyebrows perked in curiosity as he was taken to a page with a list of options, and a counter at the top of the page, but before he could explore for himself, Yuki jumped onto the screen and began speaking again.

“This is the catalog! From here you can spend credits earned from good behavior on small treats and favors! You have been allotted, ten, credits to get you started, click on anything you want to order and it will be delivered to you in a timely matter, don’t spend them all in one place though! The more elaborate the treat the more credits you’ll need so it’s good to save them! I’ll give you a tutorial on caring for me when you have been granted the necessary items to start on that! I’ll see you in my room!”

Grian really did not know how to react to any of that, at all, what the fuck, what the fuck. Deciding firmly to deal with, whatever this was later when he was in a better mental state, he noticed an alert on the menu, clicking on it he saw a little exclamation point on the Credits tab, so he clicked on it. He saw a bigger version of that counter pop up, and with a small animation of a jingle of coins raining down, he noticed the credits had jumped from ten to fifteen, a bit of text appeared in what appeared to be a log as well which read “Groomed the Master on first request, five credits earned.” Grian felt disgusted at that, eugh, he’d rather forget he did that and did Sam really call himself Master? He really was an egotist, god he hoped Sam wouldn’t try to get him to call him that. He shook his hand out a bit, it still hurt a bit as well, and remembering the incident just made it cramp more.

He clicked back to the Ordering section, maybe he could spend some credits on water? He scrolled through the list, it seemed the cheapest item was a water bottle at three credits, but as he went down, it got more expensive, a soda was ten, a small bowl of chocolate was twenty, a new book was fifty. It seemed Sam had a very unorthodox, way of keeping prisoners he felt were worth attention, quiet. He had never seen anything like this in movies that’s for sure.

Clicking on the little buy button for a water bottle, he went through a few confirmations and soon there was a water bottle on the way to him if the little animation on the phone was to be believed, a little banner popped up on the top of the screen that read “Desert Cure, order your first drink! Have a reward: you now have the ability to give Yiku water!” This caused Grian to rub his face, he’d deal with that later as well, he was going to get his water, and then he was going straight to bed, he’d figure out what’s the deal with this Yiku later, he just did not have the mental energy for this.

Lying down in his bed, he rubbed his head, his headache growing very fast, and soon it was pounding, Grian groaned, just his luck, this had been the worst day of his life, and he wanted it over with so he can have the second worst day of his life, at least the shock would have worn off by then, He stared at the ceiling and soon the door opened, another white rabbit masked person stepped in, though this one looked like an adult, thank god, and gently placed the water on the table, though keeping their gun trained on Grian which Grian thought was fair enough. Just as quickly as they came they were gone again, and the door was locked shut once more. Grian scooted over to the table, where he put down the uh, Yiku device and picked up the bottle, quickly cracking it open he took a big gulp, and couldn’t stop until he had drunk half the bottle, man he really was thirsty.

His headache relieved a bit to his delight and he put the water bottle back down onto the table. Rubbing his eyes Grian gave a glance around the room, there was no way in hell this room wasn’t bugged and he really didn’t want to strip in case of cameras, so he just slipped off his shoes and socks, chucking them onto the floor with no care, and got under the covers, resting his head on the pillow, it felt nice to finally relax even if it was only a bit.

He wasn’t looking forward to facing his nightmares without Ellen though, and he frowned, Ellen... They had to have noticed he was gone by now, hopefully they had just called the police and hadn’t got involved personally, Sam wouldn’t hesitate to kill them, and he didn’t want them hurt, anyone but them, he’d rather die here then risk Ellen facing off against Sam. His hand drifted to his wedding ring, and he imagined they were here, embracing him, kissing him, petting his hair, reassuring him he was safe, and he drifted off like that, lost in the memories of the care of his spouse. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's worth mentioning I tend to write at 1 am, I feel that explains a lot, also since theres a bit of a confusion, the digi yuki is being called Yiku on purpose to make things slightly less confusing, and because I felt like Sam would do something like that just because he can


	7. Moonlight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now for something a bit shorter.

Sipping her tea, Ellen looked up from there spell books to check on there guests, it was late into the night, and Ellen was starting to feel a bit drowsy, and there companions must agree, as Pie was collapsed over her keyboard sleeping, and chan seemed to have drifted off in a chair, phone having slipped from her hand and clattered onto the ground. Standing up, Ellen felt the moon tug at there soul, it had started waning tonight, and thus was taking some of there energy with. Tsking at the thought of what magic they could have pulled if Sam had just come yesterday, Ellen couldn’t help but wonder, was it just a lucky coincidence or had Sam started to delve into the supernatural? Getting themselves a cup of tea Ellen pondered that, if that rabbit had gotten into magic that meant Ellen would lose an element of surprise and he would have his own surprise for them, he may have contracted a demon, Sam was already basically a demon, but no Sam would never give up his soul, that rabbit was quite a hoarder like that.

Taking a drink of the admittedly slightly strange tasting tea, Ellen swept over to the room where there guests slept, gathering up the scattered notes taken by everyone and pulling blankets out of the closets to cover them. Looking over at the altar, the doll door had closed again. Sookie must be resting her energy then, they gathered Sookie’s scribblings for the note pile as well. Gently placing it on the altar they grabbed a gem from a nearby drawer, sodalite, and placed it on the pile, rubbing there finger on it to give it energy. Hopefully that would give there notes clarity and make it easier to add to it in the future, though even they had to admit, they were pretty sure that gem magic wasn’t supposed to be done this way.

Walking back over to the computer Ellen gazed over Pie, it seemed Pie was on the NHK poking around anything that even featured the word rabbit, if the video of a bunny dancing around on the screen looping infinitely was anything to go by. Ellen frowned as they noticed a very subtle pulling of her lips and squeezing of her eyes, a nightmare then? Gently reaching down to touch Pie’s head, they traced a sigil of sweet dreams of inspiration, pushing a hint of magic into Pie. They watched Pie very closely and nodded slightly as the small signs of a nightmare ceased, good, they couldn’t be distracted by nightmares right now.

Chan seemed to be doing fine on that front too, just sleeping peacefully, though not doubt she’d have a crick in her back tomorrow. Now that there world had finally stilled, Ellen felt a shake run through them, after they put there tea down in the first available surface before they stumbled to the backyard. Once they had reached the center of the garden they collapsed onto there knees and felt tears build up behind there eyes, there entire body shaking as there face felt tight Chan bit her lip to not make sound, but tears soon spilled out, soaking there face. They stayed there for a bit, silently sobbing as they stared up at the waning moon, what god had Grian pissed off for this?! Grian was a good man, the best man Ellen had ever known, he didn’t deserve this! He was nowhere near deserving of this treatment! He was a kind teacher who helped all his students, he even had Ellen teach him how to do sigils, so he could hide ones for things like good luck in the homework and the classroom! 

The moon had no answer for them though, it just gleamed and slowly sapped Ellen's energy, like a bastard. Ellen bit down another sob that wracked there body, today had been too cruel, too cruel, and while they were usually quite good at keeping there composure, they had just lost there husband, there best friend, there most trusted consort, Ellen felt they deserved to just breakdown for a bit. Another wracking sob tried to pry its why out of there sealed lips and Ellen had to bite there lip until they tasted blood to keep it at bay, they refused to let there pain out any other way but silently, they couldn’t afford to alarm anyone.

Soon the tears finally ended and Ellen was left an exhausted shaking mess, a traitorous part of there brain kept trying to wander to the horrific things Sam was probably doing to Grian as they kneeled here in pain, useless. Ellen refused to let there mind stay there for long though each time, and they kneeled there, trying to control there breathing and stand up, it took them a few tries but soon Ellen was back up and she shakily walked back into the house, though not without almost collapsing a few times. Forcing there mind into the mist of the future, there body automatically walked towards the bedroom. 

As they collapsed onto there bed the mist cleared a bit and a vision was clear in there subconscious, or at least a word, Yiku? Who was that? It seemed a lot like the name Yuki, the poor girl cursed from birth and unto death, there spirit had passed on Ellen had specifically watched it depart to make sure they didn’t come back to cause more harm. Maybe Sam had called her back? But something in Ellen niggled a bit at that, no Yuki would not come back for Sam of her own free will. Yiku had to be something else, though Ellen could not rule out it might be related to Yuki. 

Ellen laid on there bed, sore and exhausted, energy sapped from the stressful magic done that day. Though they knew sleep was likely not coming, they were always bad at sleeping when they had something on there mind, normally Grian would distract them until they drifted off when it was bad, but tonight they were alone.

If Ellen had any tears left, they were sure they’d start to spill out again, but no, they were empty, hollow. Ellen hadn’t felt so empty since there days as a reclusive teenager, it was much more painful now that they had experienced true contentedness and joy for life though, so very painful. Perhaps they could read more magic books to prepare, but no, they were too exhausted to even move at this point. Instead they started to mouth spells, weaving with only there voice, though there was no magic in the words, they were too drained for that, but the familiar practice, it was soothing, and so they let themselves ramble.

_ “Witch of purple gems spirits and stars, lost a person to there memoirs, and now they run the never ending wheel of pain, hoping to find there husband is not sl, in pain, so to the journey they must keep, to find the reward they so want to reap, aided by a spirit fragile and old, with two friends so bold, one of pastry, who has found in knives a maistry, the other just a normal girl, but in tragedy they find themselves in whorl, travel they must in fear and anger, even if the journey is fueled by angor, _ ” 

Was that cheating? Ellen wasn’t sure if that was cheating to rhyme anger and angor. Though they had now lost there train of thought, drat, all they could do was start again they supposed.

_ “Four forlorn foreigners fearing fangs find frames from former, following footprints finding fervor for fretting frowning from forsaken flame, forsooth far family find familiar fabrication, feign finesse for fitful forfeit, frantic friends ferocious fury find fallacy forfeit fawn, fervorous phase-” _

Wait phase began with ph not f! Fuck! Ellen soon found there eyes drooping though, maybe they should try again, perhaps a haiku next time, or or-

And then they were out


	8. Notes

They awoke with a start.

Clutching there chest gasping for air, Ellen quickly sat upon, sweat dripping down there face, what, what were they dreaming of? What did there dreams tell them? Ellen couldn’t remember, they just knew it was bad, terrifying, and that it could not come true. Though admittedly the fact they forgot meant there really was nothing they could do, dammit dammit. Rubbing sweat from there face Ellen took a deep calming breath they focused on there body, breathing in and out, in and out, and soon they were calm again, still unnerved, but calm. Quickly getting out of bed Ellen shed there clothes and entered into the bathroom, quickly taking a shower and doing there morning rituals before getting dressed once more. 

They heard a noise in the kitchen as they exited the room, and for a second they thought it was Grian, before they entered the kitchen and saw Pie making pancakes and the coffee machine chugging away, forcing them to remember the events of the previous night, ah, right. With a deep sigh, she sat down at the table, holding her head a bit. She could feel the start of a headache, great, just great.

Chan walked in with a yawn, phone back in hand, the blankets still around her shoulder, Ellen waved and Chan smiled a bit before sitting down as well. The two sat in silence for a bit, not wanting to break the silence, not until Pie had made the pancakes and the coffee was done at least. It only took a few minutes though before Pie walked in with a contemplative look holding the coffee pot in one hand, and the tray of pancakes in another, there job really had given her some muscle mass. With a mischievous smile, they couldn’t help but admit the sigh of such arms did in fact, make the morning a bit better.

“Don’t think I don’t see you there Ellen, if you wanted these guns you should have jumped on it when we were teens, I’m way over my crush.” Pie teased with a wink as she set down the coffee and pancakes. “Plus you lose your husband for one day and you’re already looking to replace him, harsh Ellen, I like it.”

Snorting in laughter Chan joined in the teasing “Ellen we’re not here for a gun show, while it is quite a nice show, don’t we have more complicated things to be focusing on?”

With a roll of there eyes Ellen reached for the coffee “Not before the magic juice gives me brain function I don’t.” It felt good to be joking around, even if it stung a bit, made things feel more normal, and humor was quite a normal and common coping method.

“Ellen I haven’t even brought out the cups yet don’t tell me...” Pie said with a warning tone, and everyone’s eyes snapped to the coffee pot. Ellen’s grin grew, oh that was a challenge.

Putting the still piping hot liquid to there mouth, Ellen started to chug, it burned in there through, ignoring the squeals about burns and saving some for the rest of them, Ellen chugged, and soon, the pot was empty, there mouth was incredibly numb, but it was empty. Pie swiped back up the pot and headed back into the kitchen as Chan stared at Ellen in mock horror, hand to chest. 

“How dare you drink all the coffee and save none for me!? This is biphobia!” Chan gasped, turning her nose up in Ellen in mock shunning.

“No it’s not, I’m just that bitch.” Ellen cooly replied, slowly regrowing back taste buds with there magic, they didn’t want to miss out on the pancakes.

Chan kept up her mock shun, making Ellen giggle a bit, only dropping it when Pie returned with another pot of coffee, and some plates and mugs. 

“You know you guys can help right? Making me do all the labor I should be getting paid.” Pie grumbled with a bit of a grin as they placed it all down on the table. 

Soon the trio resumed silence as they got to work devouring the pancakes and coffee, though this time not letting the pot near Ellen. It was quite comfortable, Ellen knew they were lucky to have friends like these two, who could give them comfortable moments even when they had hit one of there lowest points. It made them feel all warm and fuzzy inside, it felt good to be loved.

Though the peace could only last so long before it was time for business. Moving to grab the stacks of notes from the Altar, Pie shattered that peace by saying “Alright from my research Rabbit Skin has been in known operation for about five six years, though some sources say there’s proof they’ve been operating for eight. While they do a bit of everything, there most well known for human trafficking, dealing arms, running fight rings, and being hitman, which is very Sam I must say. There’s been interviews with people who have fought in there fights, however all of them are very dated as anyone who comes to the news or police from them are found dead within days of it, brutally tortured as well, anyone who escapes it these days just skip town I bet, much safer. There known for wearing rabbit masks, with black rabbit masks for lower members and white rabbit masks for higher members, though there is likely more to there caste system then masks, but the masks are the only thing concrete, some rumors say theres a red eyed white mask and a blue eyed white mask, but they’re unconfirmed, I think it’s Sam and Taurtis’ masks but I can’t confirm that. They’ve also taken hostages to prevent people from mobilizing against them, children of people in law enforcement or government. They can’t mobilize without a lot of angry families, what a bastard.”

Chan nodded “Alright makes sense, it’s fucked up, but makes sense, I’ve managed to get into contact with Necro who refuses to tell me anything about Silly, but he has let me get into contact with Okami and she’s agreed she can hold a class reunion in a few weeks, and has mentioned we should come over early for conversations best suited to be done on less compromisable communications, though she said it a lot more sneakily of course.”

“Hm Silly’s fate unclear, what was that about the hostages again?” Ellen murmured, eyes glancing over to Pie.

Pie’s eyes widened “Fuck that’s so fucked up especially if the eight year thing is true, they could have had her for nearly a decade by now, since before she was even 16 even! Let me check my notes on it!” after a bit of shuffling of papers Pie found it “Says here the hostage thing is a bit newer, started after a raid about one year ago when they managed to track down the raid leaders identity and find her daughter. I couldn’t find out any identities, but theres a real chance it may have been Silly, well, at least that’s better then eight that’s for sure.”

“Indeed, anything else Pie? You seem to have done a lot of research.” Ellen prodded, curious to learn more.

Pie nodded and started reading from the notes a bit before speaking “Let’s see, they have bases all over there area of Japan but the main locations are Tokyo and our old town if my research is right. Rumors say many rich japanese folks have been seen interaction with people in white rabbit masks, but there’s no evidence here. Police theorize there main way of income is through the trafficking and fights, no knowledge of what the trafficking is for but it’s believed to be for slave labor and new fighters, which is pretty fucked up. They’ve dabbled a bit in the drug trade but they don’t seem to be a main competitor, more helping other people move it around. They have really good lawyers for any arrested white masks, and much cheaper but still decent lawyers for black masks that aren’t on the lowest social ring. They chaff a lot with the Yakuza but thanks to intelligent territory moving and thanks to what Rabbit Skins get into versis what the Yakuza get into, it’s not an all out war between them yet, which is good because that sounds terrifying.”

A bit of gloom went over the three of them at this news, causing all of them to deflate a bit, gods it all sounded awful, just how did that man who hid behind a teddy bear and gave carrots to his crushes turn into this? What changed him? Or was all that just a facade? Ellen did not know, and they felt they would never get that answer, it was not important though, all that mattered was shutting down that demon for good. So with a final bite of pancakes they stood up, determined. “Chan go book us plane tickets please, we shall need them, the sooner the better. Pie, make sure you bring your best knives, there should be some way to take them abroad we can find. We should get packing, we can discuss plans in a bit, for now let us all get ready for the flight, destress a bit, we can discuss plans later, for now, we rest our aura.” 

Nodding Chan quickly got to work on her phone ordering plane tickets, Pie and Chan got out there phones to transfer Chan the money for there share of the price, Ellen frowned at the cost, but it was worth it. Soon the tickets were ordered for a flight tomorrow and the group dispersed back to there collective homes to go pack. The house felt cold with only Ellen in it, but she needed to be alone, and she needed to talk to Salex in privacy.

Gently knocking on the dollhouse, the door opened and the pencil was picked up once more.  _ “Yes?” _

Ellen decided to be blunt, and simply said “Why didn’t you move on when Yuki died.”

The pencil stilled, and a bit of it splintered, but it did not break, and it began writing again after a minute, a good sign.  _ “Because I still loved Taurtis then, and I was worried about him.” _

“So you don’t anymore?”

_ “No..the feeling of infatuation have long left, but I still feel responsible for him, I still care for him, it pains me to see what Sam had reduced him too, he’s so, lost in his own mind these days, practically a pet to Sam as long as he can pretend, it’s maddening, its, infuriating.” _

Wincing as they noticed how they jabbed the pencil to the paper on the last word Ellen bit there lip, before speaking again in a whisper “Infuriating?”

Then the dam broke and the screeching in Ellen’s mind flared up as Salex’s voice screeched in it and the pencil shattered.

** _“BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE AND I AM NOT AND YET HE STAGNATES AS IF HE WASN’T AND I HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO STAGNATE, I’M MORE ALIVE THEN HE IS AND YET I CAN’T BE AT ALL, HOW DARE HE, HOW DARE HE DISRESPECT ME LIKE THIS, HOW DARE HE DISRESPECT HIMSELF LIKE THIS, I DIED OVER HIM, AND YET HE WON’T EVEN LIVE LIKE IT. HOW DARE HE, HOW DARE HE LOSE HIMSELF WHEN I WAS FORCED TO BE FORGOTTEN BY THAT PINK FUCK! WHY MUST I HAVE DIED FOR SUCH A WORTHLESS PERSON?!”_ **

Ellen, with one hand clutching there ruined eye, blood trickling out of it from the sheer intensity, tapped the dollhouse six times and murmured “Ghost find your peace, rest within the wooden home, when you awaken again, your peace you shall find.” before gently placing a smoky quartz inside, it and closing the door. The screaming in Ellen’s mind stopped and they let out a sigh of relief, oh boy, Salex had been on this plane for far too long, she was clearly unstable and not mentally well. Though not as much as one might expect from a spirit a decade old stuck watching one person, all and all it wasn’t too bad in retrospect. She clearly had little control over her ghostly abilities though, so it was impossible to tell how powerful she would be if she had a true breakdown. Ellen hoped they’d never have to see it, for now they’d have to placate her and keep her calm, but that wasn’t a big deal until she woke back up.

For now it was time to pack, Japan wouldn’t know what hit it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Salex has issues and Sam continues to be the fucking worst even when he's not in the chapter


	9. Observations in Couch Etiquette

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grian is forced to once again remember Grian and Sam exist.

_ Beep beep beep beep _

With a groan Grian slapped the place next to him, stupid alarm clock, ugh wasn’t it Saturday? Why did he set it, and why was he still wearing pants?

Hand touching a phone Grian’s eyes slowly open, where was the alarm clock? His eyes widened and he sat up realizing he was in an unfamiliar room, old instincts flared as he went deadly still, eyes flickering around the room without moving a muscle, examining the room, before he slumped back into the bed, ah, right, Sam. Rubbing his face Grian really just wanted to go back to bed, if he slept, then he wouldn’t have to consciously deal with Sam, though Sam might come in personally to wake him up or mess with him and that seemed, less then ideal. More beeping quickly jogged him from his thoughts as he looked over to what was making the noise, it was the weird Yuki tamagotchi, the Yukigotchi. 

Picking it up and turning it on, he squinted at the brightness and quickly took it on, Yuki was jumping up and down, a little thing above her head showing a glass of water, her sprite had changed a bit, her lips looked a bit different, maybe to make them look dryer? Poking Yuki, he went to see what he could do, he had unlocked water last night right? Anything to make her shut up really would be worth it, luckily after tapping on her, her profile was brought up and Grian quickly find the water icon, giving Yuki a tall glass of water which she drank in a rather admittedly cute animation. Looking at the profile, Grian’s eyebrow raised, Yiku? He thought for sure it said Yuki last night, he must be trying to dodge any potential awkwardness there if anyone went digging he guessed. Yiku it was then, he noticed a few more buttons, one was simple called ‘address’ clicking on it he was brought to a little text box and text asking him what he wanted to be called. Grian had a bad feeling about this section and just backed out of it, yeah nope. At least the beeping had stopped that was nice.

Well nothing else to do but wait for breakfast he supposed, he wasn’t desperate enough to care about a weird digital basically ghost just yet. Looking over the room again, he noticed the few books on his shelf, that was better then nothing he supposed. Walking over and picking them out, not bothering to change because probably cameras, he looked over the titles; one was a manual about gun care which he quickly placed back on the shelf, another was a Japanese to English dictionary which he figured must be standard in foreigner rooms because Sam knew that he was quite fluent, being half Japanese, some book called Warrior Cats and looked to be part of a series that Grian overlooked as he didn’t want to deal with a cliffhanger until he broke in curiosity and shelled out credits unneededly, and the final one was a novel called Watership Down, the title seemed vaguely familiar to Grian and it seemed to be a self contained young adult book about rabbits. Figuring a fun rabbit book, if he could ignore the connotations, would make a fine way to pass time he settled onto the bed book in hand to read.

Soon finding himself nose deep in the book, Grian grew paler and paler the deeper he read this, this is not a fun rabbit book, not at all, but he didn’t want to put it down, he had to know what happened next, but soon the door started unlocking again and grateful with the excuse to tear his eyes from it, he looked up to the door, a part of him tensed to run, but he made that part of him relax, no, he couldn’t try and run, not yet. A black rabbit masked child poked there head in, and Grian sighed, was Sam specifically sending the young members to torture him more? The rabbit masked child seeing Grian awake gestured for Grian to follow, he put the book down and did as he was told.

Awkwardly walking with the child, Grian found his eyes firmly on them, this one was the youngest yet, if Grian had to guess thirteen, they also had a gun and held it like it was a second appendage, it broke Grian’s heart even more, so young, so so young, and serving someone like Sam? What had happened to this child? Grian could see a few scars peeking out of there sleeves, where had they gotten those? He shivered at the thought someone in this gang had done it to this child, and they didn’t look new either, just how old were those? Grian felt sick to his stomach, the child’s posture was also quite stiffer, stiffer then any of his guards so far, and his steps weren’t as neat as the others, Grian felt this child was scared of him, and Grian forced his eyes to look forward, in case the child took offense and got skittish, he didn’t want the kid to accidentally shoot someone.

After a bit more walking, Grian found himself in front of a blue door, and Grian had a bad feeling almost immediately, growing quite a deadpan in an instant as all the evidence pointed to this being Taurtis’ room, damn seems he hadn’t scared off the coward. Seeing no reason to delay what would be a very annoying, but likely not physically painful session and risk it becoming physically painful, he opened the door and stepped inside, ready for anything. His heart sank as he noticed that while he was right this was probably Taurtis room, Taurtis wasn’t alone, he had Sam’s head on his lap, absentmindedly running his fingers through the bunny man’s hair as his other hand played a video game with the weirdest remote Grian had ever seen, some weird one handed thing probably for this exact circumstance. The entire scene with anyone else would have screamed domestic, but with these two, it just set Grian on edge.

Neither of the two seemed to notice Grian who was seriously wondering if he left but just went back to his room if that counted as trying to escape, rocking on the balls of his feet really really wishing he could run, he could feel his pulse in his ears, the drumming soundtrack to the terrifying event that would soon unfold with him as the unfortunate sucker caught in a starring role. Grian paused a bit, wondering where that had come from, perhaps hanging out with Ellen had made them more dramatic like Chan had said... Shaking his head Grian just awkwardly kept his eyes on the screen, Grian wasn’t sure what the game was, something involving a lot of blue, weird looking creatures, and people shooting themselves, Grian was pretty sure he didn’t want to know. 

Soon it seemed the characters had all died and Taurtis threw his head back in a whining noise, which made Sam laugh, Grian’s skin crawled as he watched the two, these two had caused dozens if not hundreds of deaths and ruined lives, and yet here they were, acting like college roommates without a care in the world, they had no right to seem so content and jovial, no right! Grian’s arms crossed, an anger growing in him, he glared at the two, frowning heavily as Taurtis finally looked over at him and perked up.

“Hey Grian! Come on over, I got so many sick games on this Playcrab 2, it’s outdated but that just makes it retro and thus cooler! C’mon I got GTA!” Taurtis called over, waving Grian over, but Grian did not move.

“Why was I called here.” Grian spat out, he had no desire to play nice with these two.

Taurtis frowned his hand stilling, causing Sam opened an eye to watch, “Don’t be like that Grian, I’ll order us up some pancakes, we can make a big syrupy mess and murder cops in my video game!”

“I want to go back to my room” was all Grian said to that, only looking at them out of the corner of his eye.

“Yeesh someone didn’t sleep well, man Grian do you gotta be such a buzzkill, come on we haven’t eaten as a group since high school!” Sam suddenly spoke, pushing his head more into Taurtis hands, who quickly started petting him again.

“I do not care.” Grian said flatly, inspecting his nails to show just how much disdain and disinterest in the two he had.

“Well I do sweater boy, sit down.” Sam cheerfully said, moving a bit to let Grian get a flash of steel hidden on Sam’s person, a threat.

Grian wrinkled his nose, but he carefully made his way to the couch, looking for a place to sit as Sam was laying on the couch and covering most of it, and Grian got a terrible terrible impulse, but he couldn’t resist the thought of getting one up on Sam and sat on Sam’s legs, shaking a bit at how daring this was, but the simple fact was while Sam was still terrifying, Grian had such lovely things now like confidence, and self respect, and if Sam think he’ll just lie down and roll over every time there's a threat he was wrong, Grian was better then that now, and it felt good to have a bit of control over a situation where he had so thoroughly lost all of that.

The entire room seemed to freeze, Taurtis paled and was whispering something now to Sam, petting more vigorously, and Sam grew tense, very tense, and soon, the tension broke and there was an explosion of energy from the couch as Sam threw Grian by the neck to the floor, and growled at him, hand squeezing around it. Grian clawed at the hand, eyes wide in panic, Sam had never choked him before he hadn’t been expecting this at all! If the scratches hurt Sam though, he did not react, just growled down at Grian, teeth bared. Taurtis had frozen on the couch, staring out pale into nothing, lost in another world it seemed. Grian couldn’t breathe, and as much as he kicked and scratched, Sam would not move. 

Eventually Grian went limp, throat and chest aching, as darkness crept into the corners of Grian’s vision, and then, and only then, did Sam let go. All Grian could do was close his eyes, shaking as he waited for Sam’s next move, he couldn’t feel his body, just a numbness, he felt his mind starting to drift, dissociation, and all Grian could do was let out a small weak whine, feeling utterly destroyed. No blow came though, and Grian felt himself be slowly picked up, a hand rested on his hair and gave it a few quick coarse pets before Grian felt himself be placed onto the couch, soon there was a head on his lap. Confused as all hell, Grian opened his eyes and looked down, seeing a quite content looking Sam laying his head on his lap. Still feeling numb, all Grian could do was sit there, and struggle to not float off into space, lest he be punished again. He could vaguely sense Taurtis changing the tv to some tv show, but beyond that, all he could truly sense was his own marathoning heartbeat and the throbbing of his neck, and soon, not even that as he could no longer resist the siren call of not having to think, to exist, even if just for a few minutes,

At least Sam didn’t seem to care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grian I love you but your tendency to make spur of the moment decisions for no reason is going to get you killed please use your brain I know you have one.


	10. Bunny Behaviors are Really Funny to Apply to Sam.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam please stop being like this

When Grian came back to himself, he was laying down on the couch, blinking his eyes open, he felt his head was laying on something weird and bumpy, looking up, he paled and froze, he was laying on Sam’s lap. Sam didn’t seem to notice he had woken up though, instead playing some sort of video game, and Grian could hardly breathe, what the, hadn’t Sam’s head been on his lap, not the other way around? Where was Taurtis? Sam’s eyes darted down to Grian and he let out a gasp and let out a big grin “Oh Grian I was worried! After that twitchy guard attacked you I was worried if I’d have to get a medic, glad you’re awake.” 

Blinking Grian felt confused, guard? What guard? Sure the guard who brought him here had been nervous, but they didn’t attack him? His mouth felt so dry though, still scared stiff all he could get out was “What?” 

“Are you having a bit of a memory issue there Grian? Don’t worry your ol’ pal Sam can jog your memory! See I was gaming with Taurtis when Taurtis heard a noise outside and checked it out, and there you were, on the ground being choked out by that guard, looking so panicked and scared! Taurtis got the guy off you and dragged them out to uh, let’s say learn what happened, and I brought you here for rest! Man you’re just the unluckiest person I’ve ever met, don’t worry we got makeup for the marks we’ll get you fixed up.” Sam said cheerfully, as if what he had said was anything close to true, a hand petting Grian’s hair.

“What? No, you, you choked me.” Grian stammered out, starting to feel a bit confused.

Sam frowned a bit and gave a sad sigh, Grian squinted at how genuine it sounded and Sam wasn’t that good of an actor right? “Man did your brain really flash you back to highschool? You really think I’d choke you Grian? I’m better then that now Grian, I’m smarter, why would I hurt you for no reason? You’re my friend, I want you comfortable here, not scared for your life! You’re really not all that bright, are you? Really Grian I don’t lash out like that anymore, I have more important things to direct my anger on now, choking you would be a waste of energy. Though if you’re having memory issues maybe I should call that medic...” 

Rubbing his neck Grian’s eyes darted up to really get a good look at Sam, his eyes were soft, almost gentle, a worried frown on his face. Grian could scarcely believe how normal Sam looked, a gentle hand stroking his hair almost cradling Grian, and none of it seemed fake? Sam, couldn’t act this good, there’s no way, but he really had choked him? His eyes glanced down to Sam’s hands, he had scratched him after all there had to be marks but no they were unmarked. He thought back to the guard, that guard was pretty twitchy, and well, it’d make sense to pretend it was Sam for his sanity, so maybe it wasn’t Sam? Grian just felt lost, and he went silent, maybe Taurtis would return soon and his reaction could give him a clue. 

Luckily it didn’t take long for Taurtis to return, looking towards the opening door, Grian saw Taurtis walk in and give Grian a smile. “Oh! Grian you’re woken up, don’t worry I’ve reassigned that guard, you won’t have to deal with them again.”

Noticing Taurtis hands were freshly washed and he seemed to have changed shirts, Grian decided to perhaps not comment on that, he would just pretend the 13 year old was given paid leave so he doesn’t lose it right here, and just placate with a pinch of probing. “Oh thanks, you know, I woke up thinking Sam was the one who choked me, not my guard.” 

“Wow! That’s so weird, are you sure he shouldn’t go to a medic Sam?” 

“I think he just had a flashback, it’s all good now Taurtis, come play Smash with me!”

“Yes! C’mon Grian sit up let’s play some Smash!”

Feeling a bit unsteady, Grian figured he should probably move before someone got mad, and sat up, rubbing his head as he tried to remember just who choked him, soon though a remote was slipped into his hand and he was dragged into a game of Smash on the crabswitch, he quickly selected Pichu before Sam could hit play, while Taurtis grabbed King K.Rool and Sam took Samus.

Soon Grian was fully focused on the game, taking lives but losing them too, it reminded him of game night with Ellen who was so infuriatingly good with Zelda. The thought of the injury he had sustained slipped from his mind as games passed and to Grian's delight Sam didn’t seem to care when he or Taurtis won, just doing a bit of teasing trash talk.

His stomach growled after a few matches though, and Grian was forced to remember that thanks to that guard he missed breakfast. Taurtis poked his stomach and snickered, Sam gave an amused smile before Taurtis said “Ah right breakfast, or well I guess brunch! Whatcha in the mood for Grian? Pancakes? Crepes? Waffles? Cereal? Toast?” 

Grian blinked at the sudden barrage, was food really that easy? “Oh well uh some Toast and orange juice then?” 

“No coffee? Grian what are you subhuman? I couldn’t survive without that sweet sweet bean juice.” Sam snarked, using Grian and Taurtis’ distraction to knock out the rest of there Smash stocks.

“Oh well yeah, Ellen weaned me off caffeine.” Grian said, rubbing the back of his neck, wincing as he felt the bruising.

Sam hummed nonchalantly and suddenly yawned, “I’m bored of video games, after we get some food I’m taking you both to the pits.”

Shifting a bit nervously Grian ventured out “You’ve not told me what the pits are actually...?”

Swatting the back of Grian’s head to his slight wince Sam rolled his eyes “It’s a surprise obviously, don’t get antsy you’ll see when you see.”

With a bit of a lip jutted into a pout, Taurtis protested, “Are you sure Sam? I thought you said we’d be relaxing today.” 

“Oh right I forgot I promised you that in all the, excitement, how about we just watch some movies then?” Sam mumbled tapping his chin, “We could watch Detective Pikachu, or the My Hero movie...”

“Detective Pikachu! Please Sam!” 

“So demandy today, alright alright Detective Pikachu it is!”

“Uh my food guys?” Grian quietly inquired about.

Taurtis eyes’ widened a fraction like he had forgotten Grian was there, “Oh right! One moment!” Taurtis pulled out what looked like one of those Yiku devices and fiddling with it for a bit.”

Eyes glancing over the device then Grian Sam gave a smile “So Grian have you met Yiku yet? Do you like her? She’s quite popular, don’t worry about what you do with her no one has to know if you starve her or make her call you embarassing things”

“Sam I’m sorry but it is just, the most morbid kinda fucked thing I’ve seen in ages.” Grian deadpanned, unable to lie about how fucked that was and he readied himself for a blow.

To his surprise though Sam just through his head back and let out a loud guttural laugh, “I thought you’d say that! I suppose it is isn’t it, it’s perfect though, that bitch ruined so much shit for me back then and got a target on my back, its what she deserves to be remembered as; nothing more then a servant to better goals then her feeble mind could ever understand!” Sam blinked as he noticed Grian’s kinda disgusted confused look and quickly backtracked “Oh! Uh not because she’s a girl! She was just pretty dumb! This has nothing to do with the fact that she was a girl, this is an equal opportunity gang here! She was just... a terrible leader, and the worst, and had no idea of anything ever and would have ruined her organization and I’m so much better then anything she could ever do.”

Staring at Sam with a confused disgusted expression Grian had no idea how to process that until Taurtis leaned over and whispered, “It’s a rabbit thing, trust me, don’t press it.” Which only confused Grian more but let him neatly slot that into the part of his brain where he didn’t think about things along with the choking mystery and instead just nod.

Blushing a bit Sam looked back to the TV “Aaaanyways lets watch some Pikachu and ignore that little outburst of mine, I have no idea why my tongue is so loose today...”

Just going silent and waiting for his food, Grian didn’t know how his stay got weirder here, but it sure had, hopefully he could get Taurtis alone again soon to ask him so many questions. He figured though for now, perhaps he should just lay low, and let Sam and Taurtis forget he was here again, and sunk into the couch, hoping the movie would be a painless, relaxing break from the chaos that was his life now.


	11. Reunion before the Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sookie and Soul Owl said lesbian rights

It had been a long flight, around ten hours not counting delays, but they had finally hit Japanese soil. It had taken a lot of finagling to figure out how to ship Pie’s knives overseas but they had figured it out in the end, and so the trio entered the airport, groggy and jet lagged. They had chosen to head to Sookie’s city, as it would be less suspicious and give them more time to make preparations, and scanning the crowds, it seemed Chan’s connections had pulled through when they saw a beautiful white wing waving from the top of the crowd of people, Soul Owl, Ellen couldn’t hold back a small smile at seeing her again, Soul Owl was a good person, and never one to shy from danger. Walking over to her, Chan shot forward and gave the nearby Sookie who was also waving a big hug, which certainly didn’t hurt the smile growing on Ellen’s face.

“Girls and Ellen! It’s so nice to see you three, it’s been way too long, c’mon lets get your luggage, Chan was a bit vague because it was over the phone according to her, so you will have to fill us in.” Soul cheerfully said, flapping her wings a bit in excitement.

Pie awkwardly shifted her foot a bit in the corner of Ellen’s eyes, clearly feeling a bit awkward, seeing that Chan and Sookie where already embroiled in small talk, the act of carrying conversation fell squarely on Ellen’s shoulders, “Indeed, we are in quite a serious situation unfortunately, but that can wait until we’re out of public, for now, it has been quite some time since any of us have seen head or feather of you, shall you fill me and Pie in on your life?” 

Soul Owl blinked at that before snickering a bit “Oh I suppose that’s true, c’mon let’s walk and talk, me and Sookie are engaged actually, we took a bit of a break while Sookie got therapy, but when she felt she could be in a relationship again, our love was as strong as ever, and it’s only grown since then.” Soul Owl got a very dopey look in her eyes as she looked at the ring on her finger and Ellen once again found herself utterly stupefied at romantic feelings, she was definitely not like this when she wore her engagement ring.

Before the conversation could fall into an awkward silence at Ellen’s utter bafflement at romantic attraction, Ellen was thankful when Soul Owl spoke up again, “Oh you’ve got a ring too Ellen? Don’t tell me you actually met someone?!”

The thankfulness quickly faded at that bombshell, oh boy, hopefully the lesbian owl would be easy to explain things too as Ellen awkwardly cleared her throat, “Ah kinda? I met back up with Grian when I was exchanging over in Canada and we became friends once more and it kind of escalated from there, and well, I’m aromantic so while I’ve never felt actual romantic attraction for him, he means more to me then anyone I’ve ever known and traditional romantic activities like holding hands and dates are still fun for me, and Grian loves them, so eventually we just decided to get married to make everything easier. He knows I can’t love him the way he loves me, and yet he has never held it against me, I have been quite a lucky enby with the best qpr in the world.”

“That’s Ellen for Grian is emotional support but more importantly great in b-” Pie helpfully piped up before Ellen slapped a hand over Pie’s thankfully unmasked face

“Grrrreat in baking! Grian makes wonderful cookies!” Ellen quickly added on, feeling her face flushing, she was definitely going to need to get Pie back for that one as Soul laughed. “Gods Pie have you always been that vulgar??”

“Not back in high school I wasn’t, too shy for stuff like that, but turns out being away from that town does great things for your mental health! Probably the same for you, I feel like you used to be more aggressive,” Pie commented after licking Ellen’s hand causing it to dart away.

Soul frowned a bit at that eyes darting away a bit sheepishly, “Ah yeah, sorry, it was just a really stressful time, what with Sookie basically being stalked and harassed constantly, school just in general, and some anger issues I got some therapy for, I’m a lot calmer now, I don’t regret protecting Sookie from, all that, but I should have done it a different way.”

“Sweetie how many times do I have to tell you it was fine, sure maybe we were a bit too mean at times I’ll admit it, but it was a really trying time for all of us, there’s no reason to feel guilty!” Sookie suddenly spoke up from her conversation with Chan, “Let’s not bring down our friends, they’re probably pretty jet lagged.”

Nodding Ellen piped up as well “Yes you were just reacting to subconscious feelings of danger, perfectly reasonable, do not feel bad.”

Nodding Soul visibly perked “Right! Oh there’s your luggage!” the group quickly surged forward to grab luggage, “It’s pretty late what do you all want us to get for dinner? Our treat!”

Ellen fiddled with the necklace around her neck, a tiny house with a bit of amethyst stuck in it for Salex to travel in safely thinking as she grabbed her suitcase, “Is rabbit stew an option?” 

Pie and Chan seemed to perk up at that, with Chan gleefully agreeing “Oh yes I’d love something rabbit, I’ve been craving it for a few days,”

Exchanging a look Sookie and Salex’s eyes narrowed a bit and after a few awkward seconds Sookie spoke up “How about tomorrow, let’s grab fast food, something quick, get home quickly, I’m sure you have quite the story for us.

“We do, good call there, let’s hurry I don’t want to waste time, for now let’s talk about the reunion i believe that Okami managed to schedule for next week right?” Pie quickly said, redirecting the conversation into something better suited for public ears.

Soul nodded at that, thankful for the change of topic “Oh Right! Let’s see so far I know for a fact is going is J, Dom though we’re pretty sure he just wants free food, and I thiiink Invader? You three going?”

With a nod as they walked out with there luggage Chan spoke up “Yeah we three are fully in, you two going to be there?”

With a small shrug as she followed Sookie replied “We were thinking about it, maybe just for a few minutes to see Okami she was pretty nice, if you three are going we might stick a bit longer around, I feel you three could stomp on any of the worst members of our class if they showed.”

Seeing the mood dim, Ellen quickly added on “Don’t worry about that, we already have a plan for that actually. We’ve been working with Okami it, it should be perfectly safe, so don’t worry 

Soon they had all piled into the car, Sookie driving, and they pulled away from the airport chatting about minor things before they had made a bit of distance and the elephant in the room got too thick to ignore and Soul Owl finally asked the question. “Just what did Sam do?”

The air in the car dipped heavily as it all went eerily quiet and Ellen quietly said “We should, explain when we aren’t in a moving vehicle, I don’t want to startle you and risk a crash,”

Sookie frowned, hands tightening around the steering wheel at that, eyes narrowing a touch, “That bad huh? Then the reunion?”

“Part of the plan, we need as many people as we can trust there.” Pie quietly said, looking out the window watching all the lights pass them by

The car fell into an uncomfortable silence then as Sookie drove, the weight of just what Sam may or may not have done laying heavy on the shoulders of all involved, and Sookie took a deep breath, forcing herself to be brave, the memories of Sam’s obsessive behavior towards her, playing in the back of her mind like the loudest red alarm bells before she quietly asked, “Ellen, where really is Grian?”

All that greeted her was silence, but Sookie knew, and as Soul Owl let out a choked noise of horror, all Sookie did was grip the steering wheel harder, forcing herself to be hard as stone, and pressed on the gas harder, they had to hurry, she almost lost herself to that school, to Sam, she didn’t want anyone to lose themselves to that devil either. She never knew Grian well true, but she remembered enough to know, that time is of the absolute essence here. 

So even though her past rang in her ears like the worst alarms, she could not break down here, she had to succeed, she would help her old friends and make up for all the times she was silent in the face of evil. She would not let those three do this alone.

This time Soul Owl wouldn’t have to hold back, and Sookie couldn’t help the tiniest grin at the thought, owls dined upon rabbits after all, and Sookie would never have to fear him again soon hopefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God Ellen chapters are so much harder to write, there a necessity and I wouldn't go without them because they work so well, but its a lot harder to get inspiration when it's not involving beating someone up, ah the pains of being a dark writer at times.


	12. Reunions of Many Kinds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sookie deserves the world guys, she really does!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small warning for talking about Sookie's history with suicide, that girl is so strong, give her everything, also you have no idea how many times I called Sookie Salex while writing this darn names that start with the same letter, bane of my damn existence right there! Please let me know if I missed any!

After some very illegal speeding, Sookie got them all to her house in record time, the silence hadn’t lifted the entire time, but after getting them inside and ordering some pizza, Ellen began to speak. “Alright, we’re, we’re all here now, nothing I’m going to say can leave this house, It is of the most utmost we have secrecy for now.”

Nodding Sookie and Soul Owl agreed and settled down to listen to Ellen’s stories, and if Ellen noticed Soul Owl bringing over a box of tissues, well no one had to comment.

“Alright, so it all started a few days ago, when I got a bad feeling from spirits, so I teleported home and when I arrived everything was wrong and Grian was nowhere in sight, but then I felt a spirit in the area, so after contacting them for help, I got the story-” opening the necklace the room suddenly plunged down a few degrees, “-that they had seen Grian kidnapped by Sam, please say hi to an old classmate of ours, Salex.”

Sookie’s eyes went wide as she stared at the necklace like she had never seen it before, “Salex...” as Soul Owl awkwardly waved.

As Pie dug around in her bag for a paper and pencil Ellen continued the story “So I began planning with my friends to get them back, and got Okami in on it, as Sam is now in charge of the gang Rabbits Skins, we need help taking Sam down, so we’re going to be talking to our class about joining in to finally put that horrid, horrid nasty man out of existence.” A few tears fell down Ellen’s face as they kept there face strong, there clenched fists giving away how much this is upsetting them and Soul Owl swooped in to give them a hug,

“That’s horrid Ellen! You can count us in, we’ll make sure they’re safe, we’ve got you now Ellen you can let go for a minute!”

A sob suddenly broke out of Ellen’s iron grasp and Ellen buried there face into the feathers sobbing there eyes, clutching Soul Owl close. Soul Owl just rocked Ellen in her grip and cooed to her, not minding as Ellen accidentally tugged a few feathers free, soon though Ellen pulled away and grabbed a tissue to clean there face, now once again stony. “Thank you for that Soul, Now Pie the paper and pencil for Salex?”

Soon with everything set up the pencil started to shake before writing,  _ “Hello again.” _

Soon Sookie and Soul Owl we’re asking Salex many questions and the group started to slowly relax, the pizza certainly did help, “So Salex, how much, do you remember of school anyways? I can’t imagine the years have been very kind to you?” Soul Owl ventured after a bit of small talk

_ “Bits and pieces, I remember the accident, I remember Taurtis mostly really when it comes to school, oh and..”  _ The pencil kinda stilled for a minute, gently tapping the paper as if Salex was thinking, _ “I remember you though Sookie, I’m glad things turned out for the better.”  _

Sookie froze, her eyes widening at that, Soul Owl gently put a wing around her fiance, the mood dipped as Sookie took a deep breath and quietly said “You know what Salex? I’m glad I am too.” the mood soon resurged though as Salex drew a little smiley face at that, Sookie seemed rather relieved at it. “

Shifting awkwardly Pie spoke up “Is this one of those things we should ask about or just let it go.”

Frowning, Sookie thought for a minute, “No no, I think I can talk about this small detail, alright you three know of my suicide attempt Chan stopped me from right? I left a note on Salex’s grave about how I was going to be joining her soon, as I was in the middle of planning it, I don’t know why, maybe because I was hoping she’d be my friend in the afterlife? Or maybe I wanted to just tell someone but I couldn’t? I’m not sure why, but I did, honestly I was kinda worried at one point that Salex would be mad at me for not joining her, glad that was for nothing, heh.”

Suddenly the group converged upon Sookie, pulling her into a deep hug, and Chan blubbered out as tears started rolling down her cheeks, “Sookieeee you’re too sweet, I’m so glad I caught you even I didn’t know about this I wish I had noticed sooner, you deserve the world, I’m thankful everyday I left my bento box on the roof and pulled you back just in time when I went to look for it. You’re so strong and awesome and you’re my best friend.”

Overwhelmed by the group hug Sookie froze for a second before melting into the hug, “Oh you guys, oh Chan! Really I’m doing so much better these days, I haven’t had a relapse in years, you all really are such great friends even if we’ve been out of contact with some of you! C’mon this is nice and all but we have things to dooo.”

After a few more pleads from Sookie, the group converged back into spot, and Pie nodded “Alright fine, work now, but after this is all done we’re going to pamper the living shit out of you Sookie!”

Sookie laughed a bit “I think Ellen and Grian will deserve it more, let’s just pamper the ‘living shit’ out of everyone alright?”

Time flew by after the group had come together to share stories and cement there resolve. As they all waited for the time to come to finally meet with Okami at the reunion, they trained and worked hard, getting as much information as possible and made sure there rusty Sam survival skills were in top form. Eventually though the day came for the party, Salex had done up there make up in a test of ghostly endurance and they had gotten new dresses and tuxes, Soul Owl swooned heavily for Sookie in a Tux and Ellen had to agree heavily with that thought, it did wonders for her curves.

The school was done up in lights and banners as the group a bit awkwardly stepped inside, basically everyone seemed to be there, excluding Sam, Taurtis, and Grian of course. Though for some reason Invader didn’t seem to be around, probably just in case Sam was actually there.

J The Star seemed to be talking up something to Pepe and Patty, Domrao was shoving snacks into a bag, while Hidden Sentinels was showing an awkward looking Power Dragon something on his phone. In the corner Seb was putting a flower on a small altar with pictures of Salex, Rowan, Gareth, Yuki, and JTS on it, Star Force was standing awkwardly with Silly, and to the side Yuro was chatting excitedly with Okami. It really did seem like everyone was there and Ellen was suddenly feeling very overwhelmed. They hadn’t been in a crowd like this in ages and all there despair seemed to be bubbling to the surface, they were frozen.

Seemingly sensing Ellen freezing, Pie suddenly grabbed Ellen’s hand gently and started to pull them gently further in. J waved over to them, big grin on his face “Gosh it’s been ages! I haven’t seen you guys in years! How have you five been?! Sookie you look absolutely stunning in that tuxedo you’ll have to tell me who your tailor is!”

J had really changed over the years, he had filled out more, looking less like a twink and a lot closer to a twunk, he had a very nice stubble going on, he wore a clearly tailored thousand dollar dark purple suit and had his hair actually brushed for once. He wore a pendant around his neck, but it was hard to make out under the light what exactly it was though Ellen was pretty sure it may have been some kind of gem? Ellen was leaning towards pierosite but she wasn’t fully sure, he had swapped out his old bulky blue nerd glasses for a more sleek pair that framed his face quite well, he had a pleasant grin on his face with some rather too perfect looking teeth, all and all he looked quite well off, but not overly off-putting about it, all and all he was quite attractive as well, a far cry from the nerd Ellen kinda sorta knew about back then yet still surprisingly recognizable.

“Hello J I assume that limo our front is yours.” Sookie commentated a teasing tint in her voice with a raised eyebrow clearly remembering the cars J seemed to love and seemingly not very phased by how much better he looked, “and you flatter me, you know us peasants don’t get tailors.”

Ellen felt there nerves relax at that, though they swore there Salex necklace was heating up a bit, maybe the altar was upsetting her? Feeling still a bit awkward they grabbed themselves a cup of punch while Sookie made small talk, a part of them really hoped it was spiked, they took a sip and frowned, unfortunately it seemed there hope was in vain, it was just normal punch, damn.

“In that case you have impeccable taste in store bought suits Sookie, it fits you like a dream. It’s really been ages since I’ve talked with most of the class, I wonder why Okami called us together, I didn’t think they’d done anything like this before.” J mused as he swirled his own drink, “You’re looking lovely as well Soul Owl your dress is stunning, blue does look good on you, you and Sookie still going strong?”

Beaming Sookie and Soul Owl showed off there rings “Engaged actually! Wedding is in a few months, if you promise to bring a rich boy wedding gift we just might be able to get you an invitation if you’re interested!” Soul Owl happily gushed, pulling Sookie close to kiss her on the cheek.

“Wonderful! You two were always the cutest couple in the class, I’m glad you two are tying the knot you deserve some peace and quiet. I haven’t found anyone else myself, I’m more married to my job heh.” J beamed, taking a sip of his drink.

“What do you do anyways?” Soul Owl asked, suddenly feeling quite curious, “We never did learn what your family did and you always had so much money...” 

J shot her an award winning grin “Well my family deals in cars, we also own a good chunk of pachinko machines and a few race horses. Recently we’ve started to branch out into a job finding service for people in need taking a cut of a few of there first paychecks in exchange for getting them into entry level jobs in lucrative careers. We also have what gave us our start, which is a lot less glamorous but it’s mostly a lot of things like accounting and record keeping and stuff like that.”

Soul Owl just kinda blinked at that “Wow, quite a lot! I see you really are doing quite well then!”

J nodded still grinning, “We’ve actually been making record breaking profits and I would love a ticket to your wedding, I promise I’ll spoil you two don’t worry.”

Sookie grinned, “Well, in that case we’ll send you an invitation soon, now if you excuse us Ellen looks like a duck out of water so I’m going to go check up on them. It was wonderful seeing you again J!”

“Agreed! We should keep in touch more, now Soul Owl you must tell me how does it feel to have the wind through your feathers, if it’s anything like the wind in my hair you must be one lucky owl-”

It was at that point Ellen started to tune J out as he trapped Soul in further conversation as she stared at her drink while everyone besides Soul gave her a worried look, Ellen just clutched the cup tighter, and tried to not think about how much it burned that she had to pretend she was happy to be here while Grian was being tortured, she’d just have to bare it, just a few hours of this then Okami will rally the troops, she just had to breathe.

She fiddled with her wedding ring a bit, hoping the hematite would soothe her, just a bit longer, she just had to exist, maybe go hide in the bathroom, perhaps she could see if Gareth needed an exorcise, and gosh was Salex starting to burn around her neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doing a bit of a time skip here because I do not want to write 20 chapters of everyone bonding and getting ready, as fun as it would be to expand characters, I am only one person and I'm not doing that. The time between the Grian and Ellen chapters has always been kinda disjointed anyways so shrug.


	13. Friendship Sure Is Something Alright!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grian remembers the old days and gains a new surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started college so my update schedule has now somehow against all odds gotten more inconsistent.

As much as Grian loathed to admit it, the movie was surprisingly fun. Watching Sam and Taurtis squabble over popcorn had reminded Grian of the better days, where Sam wasn’t feeling stabby at all, and they just played Gamecrab all day and ate tons of junk food, or when Taurtis dragged them to the theater, the days were the two indeed were his friends. It was a bit worryingly easy to step back into the routine with them after the first few minutes despite Grian’s desire to lay more low. Taurtis would point something out in the movie, and Sam would make a slightly sarcastic content. Then they’d squabble a bit like ordinary people as Grian rolled his eyes and interjected something related. Then they’d all shrug and go back to the movie, or Sam would point out something that made no sense and Taurtis would give some excuse not even close to the realm of reality, Sam would call his bluff, and then Grian would interject with facts to settle it. As he ate popcorn and watched Deadpool be Pikachu, it was almost easy to forget his circumstances

It almost felt normal, especially as they had darkened the room for the movie, Grian could almost pretend everything was fine. That Sam was having a good period and seemed to be improving, that Taurtis was keeping Sam in place and being a caring, empathetic individual. That his old friends were regular people with only a few unusual issues, they were working on. It was a slippery slope; he knew it, but it hurt less. He wondered if this is how Taurtis stayed sane, these moments of almost normalcy, where it feels like it’s practically the better days back then. Grian knew he often wondered what happened that truly changed Sam from a sadistic person who seemed to try at least to temper it, who wanted to be a good person around it when he could stay in control of himself. What had made him stop trying to be that kid who helped cops and got shy around his crushes, who attempted to stop Yuki from jumping not because he had an agenda but because he didn’t want her to die, who Grian saw break down at her death.

An old biting feeling returned in his stomach, guilt, wondering if it was him leaving the duo that pushed him over, if that betrayal of trust in his time of pain may have made him worse, that if he just tried a bit harder, tolerated a bit more, Sam wouldn’t be here right now. He bit his cheek, his therapist wouldn’t like this thinking, they had said it was okay to grieve over the people they were when not hurting him, but he couldn’t put full responsibility on himself for what they had become. Their sins were not his to bear, and while maybe there was something, it was not Grian’s job to fix anyone. Twiddling his thumbs as he felt like everything was miles away, Grian tried to break out of his brain, to center himself, but he couldn’t stop thinking, he couldn’t count or describe his senses. The thought that maybe he could have done something was starting to stick in his throat like burned popcorn, that perhaps he had overreacted, that perhaps if he had just grit his teeth he could have maybe have gotten Sam the help no one had been willing to give him all the way back then, gods above they were just kids, why had no one helped Sam? He failed Sam, didn’t he?

Fingers brushing his neck, Grian reminded himself of his pain, maybe Sam had been failed all the way back then, but not by Grian, but by the adults who knew, but focused on using them to get an advantage instead, this was not Grian’s job, he was only 17 back then. If anyone had guilt, it was people like Okami, who as kind as they were, focused only on what Sam could do for them, instead of the fact that something was clearly wrong with Sam, that he needed mental help. Sure Sam deserved a better lot in life, but so did Grian, Sam had hurt him very dearly, for years he had to struggle with sometimes thinking his name was Taurtis and needing Ellen to reassure him that he genuinely was Grian, that Grian was real and not a facade of Taurtis. 

The marks no doubt on his neck proved that he owed Sam nothing, and even if he wasn’t sure now who choked him, he knew it couldn’t have been the guard, Grian was pretty rusty in combat sure, but he was pretty sure he could get a young child pinned if attacked in that way. The past couldn’t be changed, he couldn’t let himself humanize Sam more, even if there was a part of Sam’s friendship a small piece of him still missed that part of Sam was long dead, the old Sam while not a good person, at least tried to not be evil, the new Sam reviled in being evil. He could not risk mixing them up in his mind, and he couldn’t let Sam have that opening.

So he grabbed a mouthful of popcorn, and let his mind wander to the thought of Ellen’s loving relieved face when they met up again, and tuned out everything. In what was either seconds or hours, the movie finished and Sam had declared that he looked awful and needed sleep, calling another guard to take him back to his room, Grian just faked a yawn and followed, focused purely on the blood in his ears, he blinked. He was sitting on his bed, book long forgotten, even if he could concentrate on words right now. He could see Yiku blinking, but he just turned her upside down, not having the energy to deal with that pocket of worms right there. He let himself let out a sob, grabbing a pillow and letting down his exhausted barriers. 

Burying his face in the pillow, Grian let it out, sobbing and shaking, let himself feel his terror, his uncertainty, his helplessness, and he cried. He cried and cried, staining the pillow with every inch of sorrow and pain he felt, his body numb and his thoughts blissfully going a bit hard to grasp, he sobbed away his pain until he could be numb again. Flipping the pillow to its not drenched side and gently placing it onto the bed, he felt a bit better but mostly numb,

Suddenly standing up, Grian stretched, his therapist encouraged him to exercise to deal when it was this bad, and while he had fallen out of this habit as he lost the need a few years ago, he still remembered his routine. First, he did his stretching, toe touches, and knee bends, swinging his arms around and letting his body start to pump warmth through his body. Then he dropped to the floor, he’d start with seven push-ups as he was a bit out of shape and definitely more chubby then he was a few years ago, it’d be no good to hurt himself. Then starting to feel a bit of burn chase away his numbness, he moved onto sit-ups, ten of them. Now feeling his blood rushing more pleasantly, Grian wondered why he ever fell out of routine as he stood up and started doing burpees, giggling a bit at the name as usual. He did that one as many times as he felt he could get away with, which turned out to be fifteen, a solid number. 

He could feel himself working up a sweat, and he grabbed his still not empty water bottle from last night and moved to do meditative wall sits as he sipped it. Thinking of everything good in life and himself as his legs burned wonderfully. After about an hour, his still healing bullet wound was screaming at him, he stood back up and stretched a bit before sitting back down onto the bed, grinning as he felt his heart race, he felt exhausted but better then he had in hours. Sure he probably hadn’t helped his bullet wound, but god it felt good to feel a rush come from something useful instead of a shitty bunny’s schemes, he laid down and yawned for real, okay, now he would nap, and nap he did. 

Or at least he did until after an unknown period of time, his door opened, and Grian quickly sat up suspiciously, in his doorway was a bunny guard, shaking and limping and holding no gun, but their posture screamed a mission. They looked about thirteen, and they put a finger to there mouth, then winced a bit at the motion; it was oh so clear they were injured and wanted Grian to be quiet. He wondered who this child was before his eyes widened a bit, it was his guard from before, the one Sam had claimed to have choked him, and they were telling him to stay quiet, to trust them not to raise the alarm, and Grian after a moment just simply nodded. They probably weren’t supposed to be here, and he would not hurt a child, even in a removed way of calling for help, he would take the risk and dare to trust them. Their posture seemed to relax a bit at the nod, and to Grian’s complete surprise, they started to remove there mask with shaking but determined hands. 

Grian watched with bated breath as the mask was slowly removed, and he felt his heart sink at the cruelty under it, oh, oh, that poor child. Now knowing completely he was dealing with a battered young teen, he could only listen in shock as they spoke up, a spark of hope in their tired eyes, “Erm, I think we have a common enemy dude, can I trust you to not snitch to my boss? You see, there’s a power outage totally not me or Billy’s fault through yeeting a soda at something we shouldn’t have, so don’t ask, and the cameras are down for probably another ten minutes, and like, I want to talk to you, I guess. So uh, gosh, this was a dumb idea, think you can hear me out before you decide to scream or somethin’?”

Grian could trust himself to do nothing but nod at the sight of the battered child, suddenly feeling even more over his head.


	14. Rambling Rabbits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exposition Guard away!

Rubbing his eyes, Grian forced himself to wake up and take in the scene truly, his light was out, and his old guard and possible assaulter were standing in the doorway mask off. His guard had sunken amber eyes, his face covered in marks of many kinds from deep bags to bruises and cuts with a crooked healed broken nose. Despite his heart’s intense ache to comfort this child, Grian forced himself to reason. This could be a trap, after all. Then again, no harm would come from just hearing them out, right? The decision in mind Grian sighed and harshly whispered, “Fine, sure, unless you attack me, I’ll stay quiet.”

The guard seemed to perk up at that and nodded. “Oh yeah, of course, you’re bosses prized prisoner ‘course I wouldn’t. I’m not stupid. Don’t assume I’m stupid like that dude c’mon!”

Grian could definitely tell this was a young teenager that’s for sure as he settled in to listen, trying to keep his mind from flickering to his students he left behind, he bet Sam had chosen young guards on purpose because of the fact he was a teacher, creep.

“What was I saying... Oh right! The choking thing, yeah, I was so fucking framed. See, I was eavesdropping because guard duty is so so boring, and no one else here tends to care if you do so it’s free real estate. Anyways, so I hear a struggle from inside, so I listened even closer then normal to make sure I’d hear if I needed to come in and be all badass with a stoic gaze and go pew pew! And Blue Rabbit would be all ‘Woah Henry sweet moves!’ And I’d be like, ‘damn right you handsome ba-man I’m basically Rambo,’ and it’d be cool-” The teen nervously started rambling, making gun motions with his hand at the pew pew. “-and then I’d get promoted wait shit I said my name fuck now you can really tattle, shit.”

“I’m not going to tell.” Grian quickly interrupted before Henry could go on another tangent. “You meant to talk about the choking?”

Flushing a bit embarrassed, Henry rubbed the back of his head, “Oh right. So I heard a struggle but then after a few minutes it went silent before I heard boss speak, he swore a bit which is weird for him and Blue Bunny started to freak out, something about how boss had promised he’d be patient with Grian and Boss was all kinds of flustered sounding about how it was instinctual he didn’t mean to that wasn’t supposed to happen he’s just been feeling on edge, old memories and all. So Blue Bunny started freaking out about how boss had ruined everything Grian will never be their friend now he needed to get back into control; this is just like before, and you promised! So then Boss suddenly screamed that he can fix this just let him think before he yanked open the door and grabbed me, starting to scream at me for attacking his prisoner and shoved me off onto another guard to discipline me before yelling for another guard to bring him his makeup and like dude I didn’t do shit I didn’t deserve to get my hands beat like that I was a model guard so like fuck you, dude, I’ll foil your weird-ass friendship stockholm plan see how you like it when you get undermined and stuff. So like heads up, he totally used makeup to hide his guilt and framed me, and uh, honestly, I didn’t think this through. I sure did it, though; maybe I should go now?”

Blinking, Grian tried to digest that. So Sam didn’t actively mean to strangle him, and Taurtis had freaked out, or maybe he meant it and backtracked at Taurtis anger. Either way, he hid the evidence and framed a guard, even punishing them for what, sadism? To make it seem more accurate? Then the guard, Henry, got pissy about that because he’s like thirteen and probably not even entirely sure what he’s doing here and just wanted to get some mild revenge, makeup did make sense, that would explain the lack of scratches at least. It really did sound like something Sam would do at least. The fact Taurtis had managed actually to influence Sam to the point he freaked was surprising, maybe Taurtis wasn’t entirely under Sam’s thumb. 

A part of Grian wanted to take that with hope, that maybe he could save Taurtis. He knew better though, at this point, there was nothing he could do for there weird tangled codependency. He needed to accept that no matter what hope strange kids give him. He still didn’t trust this kid though, he could very easily be lying on orders, or just messing with him for sick kicks, no he had to get the truth out of this kid in the few minutes he had. So he took a deep breath and pulled an old mask over him, for a moment he was back in time, gun in hand, staring down at a pink-haired girl too far in over her head, he could almost feel the coldness of the police station, and then it was gone. His face was cold, his voice even but firm, no room for argument. “That’s quite a story there Henry, it is a lot to believe, and I’m not sure if I do.”

Seeing Henry’s eyes widen a fraction in fear made a cold lump in Grian’s stomach form, but he ignored it beyond letting it chill into his voice, he didn’t like scaring kids, but this was his survival at stake. Honestly, he had almost forgotten he could do this, at least his muscle memory of the masks back then was still active, if dull now. “I’m only going to ask you once, what do you know about everything.”

“What I can’t do you have any idea how much trouble I’d be in, I, I could die sorry.”

“What do you know,” 

Grian levied a glare deep into Henry’s eyes, not wavering, not giving him an inch, he could see Henry squirm, his eyes dilated a touch, he must not be used to this through the mask, Grian reasoned, another weakness. He didn't break eye contact no matter how much Henry tried to, and eventually, Henry slumped over.

“F-fine! Whatever! I’m fucked living here anyways. I’m gonna die soon probably anyways us younger members tend to get used as bait and stuff anyway, might as fucking well!” Henry finally spat out, his eyes darting to the floor, forming a fist to try and stay strong. “I can’t tell you everything, though. He’d torture me and give my skin to my parents!”

Grian peeled his lips back and stood up, and to the surprise of Henry walked closer before grabbing his chin and lifting it to look Grian in the eyes as he growled with every bit of anger at his situation, “I don’t compromise Henry.”

Now trembling in fear, Henry closed his eyes and gasped. “Okay! Okay! Holy shit!”

With a little head tilt telling him to get on with it, Henry started rambling. “Yeah, I knocked out the power, they won’t notice for a bit because their room gets separate power so Boss can lord over us if the rest of the power goes off. They’ve been talking about you nonstop since you got here, Boss’ been wanting to take you to the pits since day one, but Blue Rabbit has been putting his foot down pretty hard on that, says you’re not ready you’d just do something stupid. We really do want to talk to you more. Still, us rabbits were given some pretty strict rules anything other than bare minimum interaction with you is to be punished swiftly and severely; I actually got off easy with my beating, probably so I could still do my guard job, bastard fucking up my hands and taking my gun for doing nothing then still making me work what fucking bullshit. They use Yiku as a spy and Boss’ getting pretty antsy about you being here; his controls been slipping more. I’d bet that’s why he attacked you if you wanna beat it now's the best chance you got. I have to go now dude, the camera’s will be back up soon, I’m sorry, but it’s every man for himself out here.”

“Wait!” Grian called out as he turned around to leave, cold mask slipping off as Henry put his back on. “Why did what made you come here?”

There was a beat of silence before Henry shrugged, “No one else wanted me, besides the police that is.” And exited the room before Grian could respond. After a few beats passed with Grian feeling too frozen to move to an escape attempt, Henry closed and locked the door once more.

Grian still wasn’t sure how to feel about what just happened, but as he settled in for more sleep, he made up his mind. He would demand to be taken to these so fabled pits that Sam seems so excited to show him. Though as he tried to sleep, his mind wandered back to Yiku, a spying device, huh? He could use that... he didn’t want to be distracted though right now as he wanted to go see the pits. That was still useful info, though; he could cultivate a facade for her that could trick Sam after all. 

He laid there, starting to toss and turn as he thought. Taurtis also had a good chunk of sway in this place; then, maybe he was acting up wounded soldier to Grian to make him lower his guard? The thought of it sent shivers through Grian, no he wouldn’t, would he? It’s Taurtis; after all, he couldn’t think of something so sinister and underhanded! On the other hand, though, Taurtis always did pretend to be dumber in school to get along with everyone better and be overlooked. It wasn’t totally out of character for him to realize that if anyone could get Grian to sympathize with and rationalize for his captors, it’d be him. Or maybe Grian had just seen what he wanted to see?? It was all very distressing to him; to hear he’d been played like a cheap kazoo, he felt dirty. He really didn’t know either of them anymore, did he? 

He’d be keeping a closer on Taurtis though that’s for sure, he’d been too focused on Sam and let Taurtis simply fade into the background as something not urgent just like Taurtis had planned, not anymore, he’d make sure he sees Taurtis, no matter how Taurtis tries to hide. He felt a small giggle find its way up at the thought, oh he truly sees you now Taurtis, now he’s got an advantage, he could still win!


	15. Burning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellen finds her army.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> College sucks.

The party was very boring, that was for sure, but it was finally starting to wind down, not much happened of note, Ellen was pretty sure that Dom might have broken a few windows but they honestly didn’t care, all that mattered was the party was almost over and the real event was going to begin soon. The necklace containing Salex was stuffed into there pocket as it was starting to burn them with how intense the heat had gotten, Ellen would have to ask if everything was okay after the party was truly over. Soon Okami had gotten up to the stage and tapped a spoon against a glass, gathering everyone’s attention. 

“Alright everyone, now this has been quite a fun evening, it’s been great to see you all, but it’s time for serious talk, I know you all remember all the drama during the year, and.. the fallen,” Okami’s eyes seemed to find there way to Rowan, before she swallowed heavily and steeled herself “Unfortunately, I must ask you all to join up with me one more time, there has been a threat, a kidnapping, and I must ask for anyone here who is willing to help to stay, while anyone else who does not wish to head home. I will not lie to you, this will be very dangerous, but if I don’t act know it’s going to get worse, a lot worse.”

A voice rang out from the silent in shock crowd, J, “Is it Sam?” he asked the question on everyone’s mind, Ellen turned to him, his eyes were guarded, the flicker of his iris around proving that his mind was going miles behind the phrase. 

“Yes, I will not lie to you. It is Sam, and Taurtis, but mostly Sam.”

“Fuck...” J whispered, hands balled into fists, and the crowd started whispering to each other, Ellen could see the fear in everyone’s eyes, truly Sam had left a bigger indent in people’s lives then Ellen had realized. Pepe and Patty slipped out of the crowd and left, Ellen couldn’t blame them, they had kids now. They noticed Sookie and Soul Owl moving to the stage and figured they should follow, a show of solidarity.

Seeing them move, Pie and Chan joined them as they pushed through the crowd and onto the stage. They stood behind Okami who passed Ellen the mic to there surprise, shit they didn’t think this far. Pushing the fear away that suddenly crept up on them Ellen took the mic and began to speak, “I understand I never knew you all well, that I was just the strange girl who gave prophecies and avoided trouble, but my family is in danger, My husband was taken from me, and I need to get him back, I know none of you probably knew Grian well, but, if he’s getting so brazen, what’s stopping him from going after the rest of us if we don’t stop him now. I know this is asking a lot, but I have no one else I can turn to, please, help, help me.”

The crowd went silent, and Ellen touched their cheek and felt it was wet, they hadn’t even realized they had started to cry. They stared out at the silent crowd, pleading silently for someone to break this silence, to say something, to scorn them or accept them already! 

Suddenly though, someone spoke, “Fuck yeah! I’m always up for punching that shit in the face!” 

Ellen quickly scanned the crowds, eyes wide as they tried to find the speaker, Dom! It was Domrao! They felt a smile start to creep onto there face at the acceptance as more people started to speak up in agreement.

“That degenerate has been left unattended and unpunished for long enough, count me in!” suddenly cried out Yuro, eyes ablaze with anger.

“If that’s what my captain wants then, of course, I’m in Okami!” Seb declared, metallic arm soluting Okami, Ellen figured he must have gotten a promotion then, good for them.

“JTS would want me to fight for him, I can’t let that killer get away with more!” Hidden declared, though his eyes were on JTS’ portrait.

“That bastard, of course, he’d come back to bite me, count me in! I have a score to settle!” Invader practically growled to Ellen’s surprise, they figured they would be in but that vitriol was unexpected.

As they smiled at the many cries of agreement, Ellen’s smile faltered as she saw more people leaving, Star Force, Gracie, Power Dragon, and even J. They couldn’t fault them though, this would be dangerous, the fact that anyone was agreeing to help was enough for Ellen.

Soon only those determined to help were left, and Ellen felt hope soar in there chest as they saw the group. It was a decent number, and all were looking up towards the stage, fire blazing in their eyes, and Okami was gazing at them, eyes sparkling with pride. All Ellen could do facing the overflow of emotions was choke out “Thank, thank you, thank you!”

Okami snatched the mic back as Ellen found themselves crying silently into there hands, the sheer support pushing past there facade of calm they had put up for what felt like an eternity and making there fall to there knees. Faintly, they could hear Okami speak, giving directions towards everyone for when they are to meet back up and the plans, it was faint though, second to Ellen’s sudden awareness of themselves. Eventually, she managed to take her face from her hands and notice that Pie was hugging them, and they looked out among the crowd of supporters, no,  _ friends,  _ and they smiled again, eyes burning with a new fury. 

They would succeed, there was no other option, but now not only would they succeed, they would triumph, and Sam would fall, no matter what, but as they rode this feeling of support, their pocket burned hotter then it had before, and suddenly they felt something in the pocket shatter, oh fuck, Salex.

With a roar in there head, Ellen screamed as Salex’s will fell upon them, digging their nails into the floor Ellen could feel there instability and anger, they had fucked up waiting until later apparently. They forced themselves to stop screaming, as a light blue glow enveloped them as they forced themselves to take the full brunt of the magical energy to prevent it from lashing out to the others.

Then they heard it, her voice echoing into every inch of her screaming a warning, screaming something Ellen had overlooked, screaming something that Ellen couldn’t comprehend. As tears fell from their eyes Ellen forced themselves into a weak stance of prayer, praying to the goddess for Salex to calm down, her voice was too much, too everywhere, they could only make out the intent, not what she said. Ss the ones they came with began to carefully get closer to try and help, it stopped, and Ellen collapsed, utterly exhausted by containing the spirit's anger. However, before they lost consciousness they whispered one last prayer, one last desperate spell, an attempt to pull Salex into there dreams so they can talk more easily, so Ellen could understand what the angry ghost wanted from them, and then there was darkness.

Then when they opened their eyes again, they were at there old fortune-telling booth on a street corner in their old outfit, as Salex stared at them with empty eyes in front of the booth, the place Ellen prophesied her death. With a pointed expression, Ellen tried to break the ice.

“If you want another prophecy then I hope you brought Yen, Salex.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have I mentioned I have no idea what I'm doing?


	16. Opening Doors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally going to be a lot longer as I was trying a new technique to raise tension but then I realized if I did that it'd be ages until I got another chapter out and that the chapter would be waaay too long for this story. Oh well, it was a fun try at least, enjoy the new chapter!

At the sound of arguing, Grian’s eyes gently fluttered open, and he sat up in his bed, ignoring Yiku as his eyes gently moved over to the door where faint sounds of arguing could be heard, feeling rather sleepy this maybe morning. Stifling a yawn, Grian’s thoughts drifted back to what he had discovered earlier, deciding to play it casual he rubbed at his still quite sore neck and knocked on his door. 

“Hey, uh, if you’re arguing, can you do it somewhere else, I'm trying to sleep.”

Suddenly the door burst open, and Grian stumbled back eyes wide as Sam and Taurtis walked into the room. Rubbing his head, Grian could feel a migraine coming on as he wandered back to his bed, watching the pair turn their heads to him. 

Feeling too sleepy actually to care if he’d made a horrible mistake, he just watched the duo and waited for context. Soon this context came when Sam threw his hands into the air as his foot kicked the door closed, “Taurtis is trying to baby you, Grian! I keep telling him you’d love the pits, I’ve even picked out special events just for you so you won’t get pissy at tiny things like you always do! Tell him you’re a grown-ass man and are totally ready for cool shit! C’mooon Grian don’t be a weakling. You can take it; you took a lot worse in high school!”

Eyebrow raised and head starting to throb, and all Grian could really think that it was waaaay too fucking early for this. Heavily wishing for coffee Grian took a deep breath and forced his brain to work. “What?”

Okay, maybe not work that well.

With a stomp of his foot, Sam stuck his nose in the air as Taurtis began to speak to him, “Sam, you need to learn patience! I know you’re excited, but the pits will just upset him, we need to give him more time.”

“I want to go.” Grian found himself suddenly saying; he wasn’t supposed to trust Taurtis after all. He was done waiting around as well, even if it was, still too fucking early. He was getting nowhere by just sitting around, except further into boredom, after his talk with the guard last night. He knew he couldn’t stand around while children were in danger. Adults stood around when he needed it, and he wouldn’t be the same to these ones.

Ignoring Taurtis’ frown and a sigh of giving up, Grian focused on Sam to really sell it. “You’ve been mentioning these pits from day one here. I want to see it already. Actually, do more than just sleep and read, I’m getting restless.”

Sam just seemed to light up at that, a big grin appearing on his face at Grian’s agreement, “Yeah! I know you’d love it! You’d love charitable shit like it, really it’s a big testament to my generosity Grian! I’ll take you here later today you should go shower and go get ready for it! Oh, this is going to be so much fun! You’ll see we have things you’d like here! Oh, I’ll go talk to the manager and make sure everything is set up!”

Though while Sam seemed to glow in joy practically, Taurtis seemed uncomfortable and gave Grian puppy dog eyes, “Are you sure Grian? You’re still getting used to everything. You should just relax. I know you’re probably really stressed... You won’t like it, and I don’t want you to feel you have to rush into it.” 

Now on to him, Grian nodded, “I’m positive. I’m not a child Taurtis, and even when we were, we saw quite a lot anyways.” His mind filled with suspicion for how Taurtis seemed to want to keep him sitting in his room and away from the action. “I can handle myself, and I know what I can deal, please stop acting like my mother.”

Laughing Sam slapped Grian on the back with a small grunt from Grian, “C’mon Taurtis stop being a wimp, he says he’s ready, so he’s ready! That’s the Grian. I remember who doesn’t hesitate!” 

Stomping his foot in apparent frustration, Taurtis stared at Sam who peeled his lips back into a show of teeth disguised as a smile, Grian starting to realize this was less about him and more about a power struggle between the two. Judging by the past, Taurtis would give in soon, but not before testing Sam’s conviction. With no other real idea how to handle the tenseness of the room, Grian just kind of awkwardly scooted to the back of his bed and watched the two, wishing he had popcorn or any idea how to sew dissent between people, he was never good at that one.

At the display of teeth, Taurtis suddenly moved forward a bit, and Sam’s eyes narrowed. As Sam ground his foot into Taurtis Grian really wished he knew literally anything about hybrid behavior, or just mafia before he guessed. Usually, Sam was a lot better about acting like he wasn’t a hybrid, he seemed almost embarrassed of it back then with how he hid his tail and flustered at Stanley’s behavior, he had never seen Sam embrace it so fully like he was here. Maybe it was a puberty thing? Grian was pretty sure it may have been a puberty teenager thing actually. 

Gritting his teeth at the grinding of his teeth, Taurtis pointed at Grian and suddenly spat “Augh whatever we shouldn’t be doing this in front of him! If you’ve got a problem with how I work, Sam, we can do it in privacy! You just need to understand I’m doing this so we can be happy! Go to the pits if you are so sure! You’ll see soon why I personally think it’s too early.”

With a small growl, Sam removed his foot and threw his hands into the air. “Whatever! I’m going with Grian in an hour to go to the pits, and when we get back, we can have this discussion, and you’ll understand again Taurtis about why you need just to trust me!”

With a small sigh, Taurtis' body suddenly sagged, and he looked quite tired with Grian noticing the start of bags under his eyes before he nodded “Alright, I’m sorry Sam, I know I should trust you but it’s just been a rough time you know how it is.”

With a more earnest smile, Sam agreed, “Alright! We’ll discuss this later like good friends Taurtis, I know you have a lot of issues, but you must learn to trust me, now c’mere let me hug you.”

Soon the two were hugging with Sam rubbing his chin on Taurtis a bit, with Grian really fucking confused. Luckily the two left allowing Grian to immediately go to his bookcase for answers to whatever the fuck he just witnessed. Unfortunately, his bookcase contained nothing about hybrids or rabbits, and Grian had no answers for his questions, unless, his eyes drifted over to Yiku. He had an hour to kill; maybe he could use her? He remembered back, and he would have an hour after he showered and got dressed, and slipped into the bathroom to get it over with and hope he wasn’t being watched. He was getting too ripe for even him to ignore it for much longer anyway.


	17. Tarot Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Any chapter that lets me flex my love of tarot is a good chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed these recent chapters have broken the 2-2-2-2 formula I've been using, that's because they were originally going to be one chapter with changing perspectives but then it got really long and hard to write so I scrapped it and am now just posting them as separate chapters and felt keeping the 2-2-2 would ruin the tension for this section thanks to it, so oh well

With a gasp, Ellen was suddenly pulled into a hug by Salex; it was incredibly awkward. With no idea how to do the comfort thing, Ellen rubbed Salex’s back, trying not to cringe as she started to sob, forcing herself to remember this is the first time she’s likely had contact in a long time and that they should not flinch away. After a few minutes of just sobbing and awkward back rubbing, Salex reluctantly pulled away with a sniff and spoke cautiously, hands wringing a bit, “It’s been quite a long time, Ellen. I don’t know what came over me. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine just maybe warn me next time,” Ellen soothed seeing no reason to upset the ghost, “You know this is very dangerous for you to do dear, I know whatever upset you must have been quite serious, but your outburst could have ended a lot worse.”

Sitting back in there old chair, Ellen watched as Salex rubbed her arm and looked away, everything seemed to flicker a bit, and Ellen sighed. It definitely seemed like this trance meeting place was fueled by Salex’s emotions, if they wanted out, they’d need to solve whatever was upsetting her.

“I know I just suddenly remembered something and I panicked, and I was trying so desperately to get your attention, I guess my panic caused this.” Salex explained, a bit of a sheepish look on her face, “Unfortunately, I don't think I have any yen, so I don’t think I can get a fortune.”

With a small chuckle, Ellen rummaged through their stand, “Alright, I’ll let you off with a freebie this time then, I’m feeling tarot, what got you upset Salex?”

Awkwardly sitting, Salex suddenly looked a lot more nervous, “Are you sure this place is safe from anyone other than us? I don’t want to accidentally mess up more.”

Finding their spiritual tarot cards, Ellen couldn’t help a small smile as they took them out and started to shuffle, “From other mortals? Yes, other spirits or spiritual creatures, maybe I’m not fully sure, but we’re unlikely to be bothered by them. You don’t tend to see kitsune’s popping up randomly in these.”

Feeling a bit relieved Salex smiled, “Thanks Ellen, should I tell you the problem or just try and get us out of here?”

Looking around Ellen hmmed before speaking “I think this place is stable enough, let me do a draw for you while you think about what to say, I don’t want you to get upset before I can have this bit of nostalgia. Think of it as a way to relax before delving into the thick of it.”

Salex nodded, and Ellen finally finished shuffling as they felt a small tingle in her hand, it was time to draw. With a flourish, they drew three cards and laid them face down in front of an awed Salex. 

Flipping over the first card, Ellen spoke intensely, “This card is your past, a reversed King of Wands, you were impulsive in love and life, not necessarily a bad thing in general. However, it brought upon haste and high expectations, leading to you taking risks and getting drawn up in things that never could have ended well without great luck.”

Seeing Salex staring at the card, not speaking, lips pursed as upon the card, they saw a picture of Yuki sitting upon the trunk of a car, headphones clenched in one hand, and a knife in the other, a crown of thorns sitting upon her head. Taking this as a sign not to let an awkward pause form, Ellen flipped over the next card.

“This is your present, Salex, Eight of Swords, no one is keeping you trapped here but yourself Salex, you refuse to move on from your pain, even though we both know by now you need to pass on. It is no one’s fault but yours Salex, I know it hurts, but you must realize this.”

Looking like she was about to start yelling, and Ellen felt the world warp a bit, they nodded and kept going. Flipping the last card as Salex growled at a picture of Taurtis wrapped up in cables, knives in the background as a rabbit’s mask covered his face.”

“This is your future, I know it’s hard Salex, but I need you to understand this while I have you, this is the most direct way I have to try and help you while we help Grian because I do not feel like you can last out to the end with your sanity still mostly intact like it is now.” Glancing down at the card to give the reading, Ellen felt a chill go down their spine as they saw the card, well that wasn’t good. “If you keep following this path, your future holds the Devil; you will become trapped, enslaved, your attachments and addictions shall spell your doom. Literally or figuratively, I could not tell you beyond the fact danger that lies ahead of you is quite real.”

Everything seemed to shake as Salex snarled at the final card, a demonic bunny holding a leash on both Grian and Salex, who both looked quite miserable. Ellen did not react, though, just sitting there, staring at her. They knew this was a horrible time to drop these bombshells, but just as they were Salex’ captive audience, Salex was there. They had wanted to do this reading since Salex’s first lapse in control but knew they had to wait until it was the best time, and despite its flaws, this was it. If Salex couldn’t handle it, they’d have no choice but to acknowledge that the fears of her being too unstable were genuine. 

It was better to know that now then later, even if the seething anger from Salex put a pit into their stomach. They did not enjoy hurting her in this way, but it had to be done. It was manipulative and cruel in ways that genuinely turned Ellen’s stomach, but when Grian was on the line, they were resolved to do it. They had stood aside silent once, but now they were not a timid high schooler, and they would not let Grian be hurt through their silence again.

Soon though to Ellen’s delight, the world settled, Salex had turned from the cards and had started breathing exercises, even if they didn’t need to breathe. Soon once the world had settled, they Turned back to Ellen, looking more exhausted then Ellen had ever seen them. In seconds it seemed Salex’s natural look had faded, her hair going from brushed to a mess, her clothing ripped and muddied, eyes sunken and exhausted. Ellen almost wanted to make them look like you got ran over by a car joke but figured that’d be incredibly poor taste and refrained.

Tears pricking her eyes, Salex sighed as she ran a hand down her face “Alright, alright, I know, I haven’t been at my best, and it’s my fault, I’ll keep it in mind, I promise, we can talk later, I promise, but now I know I need to tell you this. We messed up because I forgot, and now we need to damage control. We invited someone we shouldn’t have. I may have put us all in danger by not remembering in time.”


	18. Masks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Grian continues to have a bad time but at least this time it's just his own mind doing it.

Soon after a quick shower, Grian was sitting upon his bed in a fresh set of clothes. It had taken a bit of searching through the closet to find something he would wear, pushing through button-up shirts and ties to finally find one of his coveted red sweaters. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find a pair of sweatpants, so instead, he went for a pair of slacks. With nothing pressing to do yet, he decided to pull out the bush and attempt to clean up his hair. However long he’d been here with no showering or brushing had started to take its toll on his hygiene, and he would prefer not to have a rat’s nest for hair. In his other hand, to distract from the painful pulling from his scalp, was Yiku, no longer pinging a desire for water as he had finally given her some. The device was less creepy to use this time; he was getting used to Sam’s... quirks again it seemed.

He scrolled through the device, looking for anything useful hidden behind its creepy charm. He gave her more water, and then scrolled through the menu of things to buy, passing by books, food, drinks, toys, he didn’t see anything too eye-catching and figuring he had a good chunk of points in case of emergency, he decided to buy a book. Yiku’s features seemed to unlock the more things he bought if her constant need for water meant anything, so purchasing something more to test it seemed like the most he could do right now. 

After scrolling for a bit, he decided on a book of Aesop’s Fables, a bit amusedly as he ordered and sat to wait for it he realized this in a way could count as a fable. You would have to dumb it down a bit, strip out the detail, but a story of one tricked by a rabbit pretending to be your friend was definitely something up that area. Maybe he could write it when he got out, get rich off books based around his trauma. A small giggle ripped out his throat at that, the thought of little kids learning small life lessons from his intense trauma was morbidly hilarious, and he enjoyed it just a bit. 

Soon the door was cracked open, and a book slipped in, Grian shook his head a bit to clear his mind of the small spiral of picking apart his trauma on different themes that were starting. His therapist called it some form of fucked up sort of compartmentalizing, dividing his ordeal into sections to make it more tolerable, some of it being deemed funny or simple life lessons if he remembered right.

Rubbing his face a bit more to really stop that spiral, he stood up and grabbed the book, quickly flipping through it for a few seconds to note that yes, these were indeed the book on fables he had ordered, before moving back to Yiku. A bit of poking around discovered that yes, where he could give her water was now after a minute of loading equipped to give her books. So he handed one over to her causing her to give a chibi clap of excitement before taking it and reading. It was almost endearing how quickly she buried her face in the book, Grian couldn’t stop himself from remembering Yuki as a student, how she was so diligent and interested in the world despite her flaws. A part of him ached for the poor girl; if only she were a part of his class these days, maybe he would have been the teacher who could have caught it, who could have saved her. 

There was no use thinking about it now, she was dead, and this horrifying facade of her wasn’t her, no matter how much it reminded him of her through his own personifying of her. It was hard to not, though; he had taken such meticulous care with his individual students to get them to trust him and to learn more about him. To catch people like Sam before they genuinely fell into darkness, to give an escape to people like Sookie, who would otherwise feel like there was no one to help them get away from harassment, every child he managed to get help was his year made. A morbid part of him couldn’t help but wonder if it was his way of atoning for not being enough back then, he dropped the device back on the desk with a heavy sigh. Why he did the things he did doesn’t matter, all that mattered was getting out of here, whatever it took, no matter what thoughts he’d have to fight, he’d find his way out.

His eyes moved back over to Yiku, eyes widening, wait, didn’t that kid say she was a spying tool? He pursed his lips and stared at her, it made sense definitely, and they were connecting to some sort of network if how he was receiving points and items were a sign. He shoved a pillow over it. Maybe he could figure out how to crack through the network later when he had more time, for now, though, he had to prepare for the pits. He had to make sure mentally he was ready for anything, knowing Sam it could be anything from anime club to suicide packs to escape this place. He couldn’t afford to be scared or show weakness. So closing his eyes, he let the feeling of his old mask slip over him, numbing him, his face sticking to a disinterested look as if everything it saw was beneath it. His chest hurt from sealing over his heart like he fought so hard for so long to stop doing, but he did not waver, he instead sat there and waited for Sam.

Soon enough, the door was open, and Sam walked in, a small skip in his step, and a giddy grin as he saw Grian, strangely enough, his mask was off. “Grian oh, you’re going to love this, I know you’ve secretly missed the action even if your weird-ass morals won’t let you show it! You never forget the adrenaline of your first kills, your first firefights, the first time you held life or death for another in your hands!” He gushed, “I know my old buddy is in there, this is just going to help you shed the facades people who don’t understand like I do, forced on you for so long, oh I’m so excited!”

Raising an eyebrow, Grian’s almost bored face didn’t really waver as he smoothly responded, not letting himself think too hard about what Sam was saying. “I suppose we’ll have to see any particular reason you’re going maskless tonight? Some sort of dress code?”

With a small shake of his hand, Sam pulled out two masks, the red one Sam wore, and a second one, a yellow one of similar make. At the sight of the mask clearly meant for him, a shiver went down Grian’s spine as he forced his hands to be still, and not reach up and touch his hair, the feature that clearly inspired the color choice as red was already taken. 

“Nah, I just figured I could show you how to put your mask on, lots of people in the pits, don’t wanna be recognized, eh?”

A bit robotically, Grian nodded, “Yeah, that makes sense. Though what’s the big deal about putting it on? Isn’t it just a normal mask?”

With a scoff, Sam handed the mask to Grian, “What do you take you for a black rabbit member? With your skills? No, you’re rolling with me and Taurtis, you’re too important for those cheap masks! This one’s got some fun features to keep it firmly on your face even if some idiot decides to tug on it to try and get a look.”

Making a noncommittal noise that could be taken for interest, Grian looked over it; it was heavier than expected and sturdier. The bunny design made something deep in him want to curl up and dissolve instead of putting it on, but he quickly forced it down, sacrifices had to be made.

“Alright, show me how my mask works, Sam.” 

With a big grin, Sam put his rabbit mask to his face and slanted it up as if avoiding ears that. Grian suddenly realized with a repressed jolt. That he didn’t know if Sam even had, did he have two sets of ears, and then pressed it fully on and tapped the nose with his finger, gently slanting it back to straight to a clicking noise. Sam pulled away from his hands and gave a small finger wave as if he had just done a magic trick. 

Following it, Grian a bit cautiously pushed it to the face, slanting it as Sam had done before tapping the nose as well. With a jolt, he felt some sort of device exist the mask and wrap around his head, as he tilted it down it fell evenly on top of his ears. Blinking in shock, Grian realized it wasn’t as heavy on his face as he had expected, the weight he felt must have been the mechanism that firmly attached it to his head that has now evenly spread around his head. If he wore it for too long, he could definitely see the mild squeezing of his head, giving him a major headache, but for now, it was tolerable. 

He looked up at Sam, noting how well he could see through the mask, only the very sides of his vision being cut off somewhat. Sam nodded seemingly pleased, Grian felt another shiver down his spine and figured behind the mask, Sam must be staring, probably because Grian was wearing his....claim for lack of a better word willingly for the first time in years. It must be quite a sight for the possessive rabbit to Grian’s disgust. 

Taking a deep breath, Grian forced down all the angry and scared emotions at the thought of being Sam’s property and having his claim once again. So he kept up his mask behind the mask, knowing if he let his face crumple even in this privacy, he would likely not be able to recover. Luckily soon to distract from the thoughts Sam spoke again, a tone Grian couldn’t identify suddenly piercing through the words, and Grian didn’t want to determine it either,

“Wow, Grian, you look goooood, real good! Get you a few scars, and you’d look like you’d belong at the top with me! You look like how I always knew you could if you just let yourself go if you stopped letting everyone restrict you to niceties. It’s almost everything I’ve ever wanted from you wrapped up in one neat look. If only you weren’t wearing that sweater... Maybe something more form-fitting, more intimidating, oh yes, you clean up nicely, Grian! Oh right, now if you just wanna take it off, tug the left ear twice and then the right ear once, then tap the nose again.”

Nodding Grian forced everything Sam just said that wasn’t about taking this face trap off, he could already start to feel walls closing in around him in it, into the do not think about it pile and cocked his head. “The pits, Sam?”

Grabbing his hand, Sam tugged him off “Yeah I was getting to it, let’s hurry I don’t want to miss it, oh its a shame Taurtis didn’t want to come and see you try out your new mask, his loss heh, he’ll be so sad he wasn’t there to coddle you through it. Good, maybe he’ll start to realize you don’t need someone holding your hand always to survive, no idea what’s going through his head about you. Maybe he still thinks you are seventeen or something I dunno, weirdo. I can’t wait until I can see you in that mask daily, though, see you show the world you mean business, been way too long since I’ve seen you take what you want with no second thought.”

“You are literally holding my hand right now,” Grian couldn’t stop himself from pointing out, ignoring all the bits Sam said he really didn’t want to think about, tugging the hand a bit, causing Sam to grip it tighter.

“Well, that’s because you don’t know where this is yet and are still getting used to the mask Grian, c’mon don’t be a brat.” 

With a small snort, Grian let the topic drop; Sam was being really liberal with his tongue today, just chattering away he noted. Was it because he was away from Taurtis and felt he could talk freely? Or was it because he was simply excited? Was it another form of manipulation? He genuinely couldn’t tell, so he just let himself be pulled through the never-ending halls and twists of the building until they finally went through an iron door into what looked like a modified warehouse.

Looking around, Grian noticed some bleachers set up around the room with some fancier seats and marked off areas around, a smattering of people sitting on it, all wearing masks of there own, not rabbit ones, but just casual masquerade ones. Though there were several black-masked guards around, all armed. There was a stand where a man stood in a gold-colored rabbit mask, a different style from the others, more designed to look appealing and to welcome then like a mask signifying a gang. They were chatting with a few of the people in masks, scribbling down things onto a piece of paper that looked a bit like a ledger. 

Finally, his eyes fell to the centerpiece of the room unable to avoid looking at it for any longer, a deep and huge pit was dug into the earth, it was blood-stained with guard rails around it to prevent anyone from falling in, and it took up most of the room. A small shiver went down Grian’s spine as his eyes noted a gated tunnel he could see in the hole from where he was standing, and he forced himself to not react. It was undeniable these were fighting pits, and he was unable to pretend this could have been anything else anymore. A shiver forced it’s way down his spine, and he felt the room spin a bit, Sam had threatened to send one of his students into that, that blood-stained hole where Grian felt certain people had died before if Grian made attempts at escape. He wanted to throw up, but he just stood rigid; still, he couldn’t afford it right now. Another bit of trauma, another fable to sell later.

Sam was saying something about the pits, but Grian couldn’t hear it his ears were full of rings, and soon he had waved the golden masked bunny over, and even though he couldn’t hear Sam, he could hear the man’s voice.

“‘This him? Well, he looks like he’s seen better days, then again he’s always looked like that, I fixed it up how you asked Boss, nothing too nasty tonight, and I get a higher cut of 30% of having to deal with the bitching regulars. Not the best crowds tonight, but whatever its usually a slow day today anyways. Please try not to scare off the customers today Sam, I know you were never the best salesman, it took ages to calm down the crowds last time you were here. Oh, also, I need to speak to you soon about an event in a few weeks that just got announced a bit ago.”

As Sam replied, Grian squinted as the ringing in his ears, encompassed everything, why did he seem so familiar? Why did he sound almost friendly with Sam, they had clearly known each other for some time and recognized Grian, so it had to be someone from ten years ago... 

His face paled as the dots clicked, suddenly very glad for the mask for hiding his very visceral reaction as he felt a cold sweat erupt, he knew this person, and they were influential even outside the criminal circuit. Sam and Taurtis weren’t the only ones who left that school going into illegal activity; it seemed. There was only one person who fit the description Grian was pulling together in his head, and he had no way to tell anyone they weren’t to be trusted.

This was shaping up to be a rather bad day, and Grian really wished he could sit down.


	19. Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one's a doozy and a bit long coming from Ellen I think,

Shuffling their cards to knock out some of their nervous energies as they awaited for Salex’s answer, Ellen sighed, “Of course we did, it can never be easy, can it? Well, what happened?” 

Salex took a deep breath, fist clenching and unclenching before they finally said it. “J The Star works closely with Sam, helping him with the more illegal financial side of things. He runs the rings, the money laundering, rigged gambling, the works. There is no way we haven’t just lost our opportunity of surprise. I am so sorry Ellen, I just, I got so wrapped up in Taurtis and Sam, I didn’t even realize it was important until I saw him! This is my fault, and I am so so so so sorry!”

Eyes widening at the realization, Ellen’s concentration slipped, and her cards went everywhere as the implications of those words hit her like a bullet to the gut, only one landing upon the booth face up, an upside-down Ace of Pentacles, upon it a picture of J holding a bag of money. The smiling face burned ice into Ellen’s core, pain lacing like a gaping wound had reopened, and then their eyes opened truly. 

Gasping for air and heart-pounding at the shock of suddenly returning to the true world, Ellen sat up panting wildly; they frantically looked around for J, but not finding his face anywhere in the crowds. Shaking, Ellen finally noticed the worried eyes and how people were more crowded around them. She felt the hands gently on their shoulders, keeping them from getting up. Looking up, they saw Okami’s worried face, there hands traveling to the pocket that had previously held Salex, wincing a bit at the shards. Taking a deep breath, Ellen gave a weak smile, but soon gave up, letting it fall and instead giving out a truly defeated sigh, all there earlier energy and hope just gone.

As everyone spoke at once asking for answers, Ellen did not let themselves hear them. The rage they had expected to settle in them about J never settled; they just felt tired. They had gone through so much, and this was just another heartbreak to the pile after all. They felt no anger, not even grief, just exhaustion, that the world could be so cruel, that how on every turn since the quest began they had met nothing but pain and anger and strife. A heart could only take so much, and Ellen’s had taken quite a beating for weeks now. All in their heart for the company was a cold encompassing void, a desire for rest. So they pulled away from Okami’s hands, taking the teacher by surprise and stood up shakily, a hush fell over the crowd.

Walking to a more empty part of the stage, they silently pulled out their emergency chalk and began to sketch upon the ground, perfect lines and loops and sigils despite the weariness in their bones; it was perfect. Eventually, in the silence that just caused the cold void to thrum in Ellen’s ears, it was completed, a large and complex summoning circle. As they threw the remains of the gem on the summoning circle and clasped there hands together to mumble the words, they felt something wet fall upon their hands. Realizing they had been crying, all Ellen could process was the thought of wonder on how lucky they were it hadn’t smudged the circle. 

As that same blue glow began to come from the circle, Ellen kept her hands clasped, and her words, though mumbled, true. They estimated they would lose almost all their energy for this, and it wouldn’t even last that long, but they didn’t care. All the lack of time and energy meant is that Ellen could finally have a deep rest for the first time in ages and that for just a big check out of the entire situation. Salex could explain it to the crowd and get everything started; Ellen didn’t have to do it, Ellen didn’t have to do anything. 

Was it selfish to just leave a situation like this even if for only a few hours? Ellen couldn’t find themselves to care as the darkness crept into the side of there vision, it probably was selfish to pull this, and they knew it. Selfish to not put themselves in full force to save the day, selfish to just run away again, selfish to make everyone panic just so they could sleep without nightmares, selfish to feel nothing but exhaustion and a very numb sense of dread, selfish selfish selfish. 

After all, Grian couldn’t just pass along his torture to another and run if even for a minute, but they would, they weren’t even in a fraction of the same danger and pain, but still, they're running, like a coward. Always running, never stopping, so weak and selfish, never willing to stop the turns of fate, to not even try and fight against the foreseen, such a horrible person who always failed to save anyone. As they fell back to the ground, their vision quickly fading and faintly hearing gasps and screams from everyone, Ellen knew they’d always run at the end of the day, they were cowardly, and nothing could genuinely change that. 

Cowardly and weak, not able to grieve correctly or fight properly, not able to even exist properly. Selfish to the end, that was them, no point in fighting it when they were so tired. They didn’t even know why they tried to be the hero when they were truly weak to the core, what a silly fantasy of theirs.

Soon the tears fell stronger. Thoughts strayed towards Grian, the perfect charming loving and caring Grian, and they imagined his smile, of him brushing there hair. They never deserved him, and they probably wouldn’t be able to save him, but they were already selfish, they could be a bit more selfish and let themselves go to sleep to memories of the person they could never compare too.

So with memories of love from the only boy willing to give it so strongly to one who could never return it the same way, starting to chase the cold in their bones—feeling nothing but the exhaustion that hadn’t left there soul for weeks. Knowing they were finally getting to rest and feeling the warmth of love, they laid on the cold stage with a smile on there face despite everything, and they let themselves fall into dreamless darkness as the spell finished, and someone screamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ellen can have a little well-earned breakdown from trauma and grief, as a treat


	20. Awaken Witch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lived bitch

When Ellen first felt consciousness return to them, they did not even consider opening their eyes. A yearning emptiness still gnawed upon them, their bones still overlaid with a bitter frost. Though Ellen soon realized, as they floated in darkness, it had lessened from the blizzard it was before. It wasn’t all-consuming, all-destroying anymore; they could think through the ice. However, it still was there, and it numbed them to their core, but they could think now. No longer they felt a need to escape it at all costs, the desire to claw off their own skin to try and bring in the warmth desperately.

So there they laid, thinking, mentally scanning over what had happened before they had done the ritual. Ellen wondered why they didn’t feel more upset about the summoning, it was so sloppy and could have ended badly, but it seemed the numbness had swallowed the reaction, so Ellen just mentally noted not to do it again and moved on. Unfortunately, the darkness could not last forever, and so they opened their eyes and entered the blistering light once again.

They hissed as the light seared into there eyes, but after blinking the pain away, they began to adjust, it seemed they were still laying on the floor. However, someone had put a bag under their head, as they moved their head to look around, they noticed Okami directing people nearby, and suddenly heard a familiar shout of “ELLEN!”

Suddenly there was movement as Okami suddenly caught Soul Owl, who had flung themselves towards the stage, stopping her from colliding where Ellen laid. The owl seemed tearful as they blubbered apologies for not noticing how bad it had apparently gotten, and Ellen raised a hand, silencing her. Mostly because Ellen just noticed their head was pounding, but also because Ellen really didn’t want more people upset. 

Now that everyone had noticed Ellen’s sudden awakening, people began to crowd around them, much to their headaches annoyance. They tried to sit up only to get gently pushed down, the motherly frown of Okami dissuading future attempts. Seb walked up in front of them and crouched down, “Good to see you awake, Ellen, the captain says you’re just exhausted, and beyond a few minor burns, you’re physically fine. If you’re up to it, I can debrief you while captain keeps everyone off your back,

Mulling it over for a few seconds, Ellen rasped out, voice sore from screaming, “May I have something for me to drink first?”

With a nod, Seb barked off behind him “Hey! If you’re so bored, how about you get me something for Ellen to drink! Water would be ideal, but anything will work! On the double!”

Quickly someone dashed off, and Ellen felt relief when a water bottle was pushed into there hands that they promptly started to drink but was soon dragged away from her, “Woah! Slow down Ellen, you’ll get sick! Nice, it easy, I didn’t get you this to choke on y’ know!” 

Ellen blinked, giving a small glare to the source of the voice who took there sweet, sweet water, It seemed like it was Yuro. Though Yuro seemed pretty uncaring about the glare, he gave the water back, and Ellen began to drink more, though this time was pointedly stopping themselves from just chugging it, so they don’t lose it again. A good dent in the water bottle’s content was soon made, and Ellen screwed the cap back on. Throat no longer as pained, Ellen spoke up to Seb, who seemed to be also giving Yuro a bit of a stink eye. “Alright, I’m ready now.”

Seb nodded. “Alright, an apology for letting Yuro bother you, but he insisted. Anyways, Sa- that stunt you pulled really rattled us. Still, we got some good information out of it,” Ellen noticed the small stutter about Salex, knowing it was likely a lot for someone to probably come face to face with an old dead classmate Ellen let it pass without comment. “We are all aware now that J has turned traitor and needs to be taken down; unfortunately, he was long gone when Dom ran out to try and see if he was still skulking around. Captain’s going to work on putting out a warrant for his arrest, but it’ll be a bit hard to get through with the fact the main witness is uh, dead, but she’ll figure something out.”

Taking a deep breath, something in Seb’s expression changed, it was slight but still noticeable, no longer in stiff business mode a sadness lingered in his eyes. “Unfortunately, due to that leak, the perimeter was no longer secure and, well, I’m afraid we found several bugs hidden around the floor, all likely traceable back to J. We have firmly been compromised.”

Tears started to threaten to pierce through Ellen’s lashes once more as that feeling of ice thrummed through them in fear, but Ellen forced themselves not to weep at it all, it would just upset their head anyway they had to stay strong. Clutching the water bottle, Ellen could only quietly mutter, “Ah...how long was I out for again?”

“A few hours, nothing too long, the captain has kept us all here so we could screen everyone still here, everyone’s clean so I doubt we have any more traitors amongst us, but we had to check. Now that you’re awake, we can start wrapping things up.”

Ellen nodded and sat up; this time, no one stopped them. “Alright, what’s the next step? I doubt Okami’s going to let us go without a full plan.” 

With a nod, Seb gestured to Okami, “Captain will debrief everyone together. Can you move anymore, or will we need help to get you home?”

Determined, Ellen furrowed their brow and attempted to stand up, Seb hovered his hands nearby, ready to catch them if they fell, but Ellen stood indeed, even if a bit shaky. With a nod of understanding, Seb silently motioned to Sookie, who wordlessly took Ellen’s arm around her shoulder. The two took a few steps while Soul Owl incredibly hypocritically kept anyone from getting too close. As Seb reported to Okami, suddenly, a loud whistle came from her.

Standing on top of the stage, Okami’s sheer presence commanded strict perfect attention. With a stern no-nonsense look, she began to speak. “As we all know, this has been a very harrowing night! I’m sure you’re all tired and ready to go home! I will be in contact with all of you later, but know it’s not too late to back down if this is too much for you! Until then, as the most at-risk member here, I’m assigning Sookie to guard Ellen, if Sam knows what’s going on, there’s a genuine chance he may target them, and I will not have preventable tragedies on my hands! If you are approached by J know he is very dangerous and potentially armed, do not engage unless you are one of my officers!” Invader let out a small snort of annoyance at that but very quickly shut up as Okami gave one hell of a death glare her way. “If anyone else here feels like they may be at risk, I can see if there is anyone else to spare to help keep you safe, now pack up and head out! I recommend traveling in groups, but if you feel like you can handle heading out alone, I will not stop you! I applaud your bravery tonight, and I hope none of you have nightmares!”

With that people started to trickle out, with a few goodnights from people, Yuro told them to keep the water bottle as they stole it from Dom who probably stole it themselves. In the corner of their eye, Ellen saw Hidden ask Seb to escort them home, and Ellen was starting to clean up. Feeling sore and defeated but not out, Okami figured it was time to get home. Though not before Silly approached them, “Hey gals and Ellen you heard my mom’s orders, I’m sticking with you guys, for now, I hope I won’t be too much of an intrusion!”

Soul shook her head at that, waving off the thought with a wing, “Don’t worry too much Silly you’re a pleasure to be around, I’m more upset we invited that creep to our wedding ew, like yeah you’re gonna spoil us huh well how about you give us what we really want and cut Sam’s head off!”

Sookie nodded in serene agreement, and Ellen silently decided to never get on these two’s bad sides while Silly blinked in surprise at such a sudden violent statement.

**Author's Note:**

> I guess I'm continuing then


End file.
